To push economic reforms in Constitution

SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Friday said the House of Representatives (HOR) is open to any proposal of the Senate to push economic reforms in the Constitution to propel economic recovery that would provide income for the government and create jobs for Filipinos.

This was stressed by Romualdez in reaction to Leyte Rep. Richard Gomez’s statement during Thursday’s press conference with the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) that the latter convinced him to support the constituent assembly (con-ass) aimed at amending the 1987 Constitution.

But Romualdez clarified that “if the Senate wants a different mode, that is their discretion.”

“The House leadership, however, is willing to open discussions with the Senate on their preferred mode of amending the Constitution if that will lead to an agreement between the two chambers. We are open to consider any proposal of the Senate and will submit such proposal to Members of the House,” Romualdez said.

“This was what I relayed to Rep. Richard Gomez when he informed me that senators are amenable to economic amendments but through Constituent Assembly,” he said.

Earlier, Gomez said there were three issues that their senator-partymates (Sens. Francis Tolentino, Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa and Robinhood Padilla) “conveyed” during their morning meeting that include pushing con-ass, amending the economic provisions, and the Senate and the House of Representatives voting separately.

After the meeting, Gomez said, “We presented this to our leadership in the HOR, with Deputy Majority Leader Dong Gonzales, Majority Leader Mannix Dalipe and the Speaker,” where the latter purportedly agreed on the discussions.

Romualdez also said, “What the House of Representatives approved was the Constitutional Convention (Con-con) mode of amending the restrictive provisions that prohibit the entry of foreign investments.”

The House of Representatives approved Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6, which calls for a constitutional convention to amend “restrictive” economic provisions of the Charter which would enable the country to attract more foreign investments, and its implementing measure, HB No. 7352.

The House voted 301 against six with one abstention to overwhelmingly approve RBH No. 6 on third and final reading. HB No. 7352 has also hurdled third reading with 301 against seven voting.

The Speaker also hailed the joint effort of Gomez and Padilla in helping the House of Representatives and the Senate to reach a possible agreement on constitutional amendments.

“I commend the efforts of Rep. Gomez and Sen. Robinhood Padilla in trying to forge an agreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate on this issue,” Romualdez said.