Senate-House dialogue proposed

MANILA, Philippines — Conflicting versions of the Senate and the House of Representatives on the proposed economic amendments to the 1987 Constitution, specifically the contentious issue on voting, should be threshed out in a dialogue among senators and congressmen, according to former senator Gregorio Honasan.

“There’s nothing wrong in sitting down and engaging in a dialogue. We have to do this together,” Honasan told Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. during the hearing of the House committee of the whole on Wednesday.

“We are exposing our strengths and weaknesses as a young democracy to temporary friends and allies. This is not good for us,” Honasan said, adding that the nation’s leaders should avoid wrangling in public and settle their differences discreetly.

This is in light of the admission recently made by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri that his leadership is finding it hard to get the votes of 18 senators to approve their Resolution of Both Houses 6, even if he already promised the Senate’s approval to President Marcos, Gonzales said.

This latest development leaves economic Charter change in the Senate with uncertainty, unlike in the House where plenary debates on Resolution of Both Houses 7 will start on March 11, and is projected to be approved on second reading by March 13.
The House committee of the whole approved RBH7 on Wednesday after six days of exhaustive marathon hearings, which started on Feb. 26.

The House is set to pass the resolution on second reading next week. The chamber is targeting final and third-reading approval before Congress goes on its Holy Week recess on March 23, and then send RBH7 to the Senate.

Allowing Ivy League schools in the US to put up branches in the country will force local institutions to improve their quality of education, without sacrificing the need to inculcate patriotism among Filipino students, administration lawmakers said.

“If we will have a Harvard University here, then there is no more need for students to go abroad. I’m supportive of access to education,” Rep. Fidel Nograles told reporters.

Nograles added students aspiring to study abroad will not be constrained by travel and education costs,