Villanueva: Senate on track to amend rules for Cha-cha plenary approval

Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva on Tuesday made an assurance that the chamber is on track in crafting new rules that will allow the Senate to either approve or reject measures to amend the 1987 Constitution.

“We’re definitely on the right track and we’ll be ready before the culmination of the subcommittee hearing,” Villanueva said, referring to the Senate constitutional amendments and revision of codes subcommittee’s hearing on Resolution of Both Houses No. 6.

“After our hearing[,] we asked the secretariat to collate and present to the members of the [R]ules [C]ommittee our draft committee report then [I]’ll sponsor it on the floor and approve it,’ ‘ the majority leader added.

The Senate rules committee, headed by Villanueva, is currently crafting amendments to the Rules of the Senate amid the subcommittee’s deliberations on RBH6 which seeks to amend certain economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

The need to amend the Rules of the Senate was earlier raised by Senator Francis Escudero as he noted the lack of guidelines on how the chamber will either adopt or reject proposals to amend the Constitution.

Escudero had noted that the House of Representatives already has the rules to amend the Constitution in their chamber under Sections 143 and 144 under Rule XXI.

Following Escudero’s manifestation, Senator Francis Tolentino filed proposed Senate Resolution 941 which seeks to provide clear guidelines on how the Senate will act on measures seeking to amend the charter.

The House of Representatives had already approved on third and final reading RBH 7, which mirrors the amendments to the Constitution proposed under Senate’s RBH6.

Last week, Senator Sonny Angara, chairperson of the subcommittee that hears RBH6, said they are “moving fast” on approving the measure but it is not the Senate’s only priority.

Angara had earlier said they are planning to sponsor RBH6 before President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s  State of the Nation in July.

Although he has set the timeline for RBH6’s passage, Angara  admitted that it would be an “uphill climb” for them to get 18 votes to approve the measure.

Even Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri had also said that it would be a big challenge for the Senate to gather a majority vote to pass RBH6.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros, Senators Cynthia Villar and Imee Marcos have already expressed their opposition to RBH6.

If seven senators voted against RBH6, the chamber would not be able to approve the proposed economic amendments to the 1987 Constitution.—AOL, GMA Integrated News