House moves Cha-cha debate to next week

Deliberations of the House Committee of the Whole on the Resolution of Both Houses No. 7 (RBH 7), which seeks to amend constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership of public utilities and other vital industries, has been moved to Monday, Feb. 26.

House appropriations panel senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo discussed the new schedule, originally set for Feb. 21, during a press conference on Wednesday.

“It (Committee of the Whole discussions on RBH 7) will be moved to Monday due to the availability of the resource persons [on that day]. As you know, the resource persons’ output is very important in this endeavor,” Quimbo said in a press conference.

“Since we will be doing it in the plenary [as Committee of the Whole], the proceedings will be fast tracked,” Quimbo added.

The resource persons, Quimbo said, will include foreign investors, business chambers, small businesses, economists, members of the academe and the country’s economic managers.

“We will be having them [as resource persons] so we can validate, from their point of view, on how they feel about our existing policies and how it affects them. As for economists and the academe, they have been studying this for so long, and hopefully, we can get an objective assessment,” Quimbo added.

Last Tuesday, the House plenary approved without objection the motion of House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin of Iloilo for the convening of the chamber as the House Committee of the Whole to tackle RBH 7.

Garin’s motion set the deliberations on Feb. 21, Wednesday, at 1 p.m. or two hours earlier than the regularly scheduled 3 p.m. session of Congress.

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Mannix Dalipe of Zamboanga City said the House Committee of the Whole plans to hold three hearings on RBH 7 in a week or during Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.

“The plan is to hold three hearings per week. In fact, some of the resource persons we’ll be inviting for the nth time, pabalik-balik na lang kami (we keep going back and forth), but since we are so focused trying to help this country, especially in amending those restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution, and also with the orders of the President, President Bongbong Marcos, that the Senate take the lead and we follow suit, this is it,” Dalipe said.

“We’ll try to exhaustively discuss it,” Dalipe added.

Dalipe, however, clarified that the speed of their timeline will not compromise procedures or their output.

“We are doing a short cut. We are doing it three times a week so we can address the questions of all the House members. That is how serious we are,” Dalipe said. — VDV, GMA Integrated News