By Junex Doronio
MANILA — If the Senate cannot shepherd the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 6 into passage by July this year, Cha-cha (Charter Change) is good as dead even as lawmakers at the lower chamber push for a plebiscite separate from the midterm polls.
This was the sharp remark of House Deputy Speaker and Quezon Second District Representative David “Jay-Jay” Suarez who joined other members of the House of Representatives on Monday (04 Mar 2024) in pushing for the plebiscite for Charter change (Cha-cha) ahead of the May 2025 midterm elections.
RBH 6 aims to lift the foreign ownership limit of public utilities and other vital industries.
“I have been consistent in my position that the plebiscite should not be held simultaneously with the 2025 midterm elections. We cannot allow the Constitution to be tainted with politics and political mudslinging,” Suarez, a stalwart of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), said in a press conference.
Zambales 1st district Rep. Jefferson “Jeff” Khonghun (Nacionalista Party) agreed that Cha-Cha plebiscite should be held separately.
“The people will better understand Charter change if the plebiscite will be held separately,” he said.
For his part, La Union 1st district Rep. Francisco Paolo Ortega V (Nationalist People’s Coalition) said that “the Constitution should be put on a pedestal on its own” to assure the public that efforts to amend the Constitution is not political, but an economic Cha-Cha.
However, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr. earlier noted that holding Cha-cha plebiscite and 2025 polls separately will be expensive.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) also said that it is willing to conduct the Cha-Cha plebiscite simultaneously with the 2025 polls since it will entail less amount of expenses.
(el Amigo/MNM)