Alan Peter Cayetano: “Cha-Cha Will Have To Wait”
ALAN PETER CAYETANO – Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano recently said that moves to amend the 1987 Constitution will have to wait.
Cayetano further said that the Lower House delayed deliberations on charter change (Cha-cha) so that they would tackle more important issues such as the COVID-19 scare, the termination of VFA (visiting forces agreement), and the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise.
“Pinostpone namin kasi nag-usap-usap po kami, napakaraming kontrobersyal na sabay-sabay. Mahirap po magkaroon ng sober o malamig na ulo ng discussions kung sabay-sabay ‘yung maiinit. Nandiyan ang ABS-CBN, nandiyan po ang VFA, nandiyan po ‘yung usapan sa COVID-19—kung safe na ba o hindi, kung saan pa magba-ban o hindi. Tapos nandiyan pa ho ‘yung, kahapon, sa hearing po sa Kongreso, P100 bilyon daw ang utang ng ibang mga power generators sa ating bansa. Nandiyan din ang usapin sa tubig na hindi pa natatapos,”
According to ABS-CBN, Cayetano said that postponing Cha-cha deliberations would give him more time to find out how acceptable it is to congressmen.
“I want to get things done by consensus. Hindi ako naniniwalang ipe-pressure mo ‘yung isang tao, ‘yung isang chamber, maipapasa ‘yan, kasi iba ngayon e. Style ng mga bata ngayon, mga bata ngayon, ‘pag pinressure mo, lalong ayaw, e. So, kung mape-persuade naman natin, rather than mape-pressure natin, mas mabuti,”
Rufus Rodriguez, chair of House Committee on Constitutional Amendments said last Wednesday that his committee is currently finalizing their draft of the proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution.
As per the report, the committee met on Wednesday but failed to vote on the draft that is to be submitted to the House for debates.
“Everyone would like to have their own position and we cannot stop our own members from expressing their views on each and every section amendments that the Interagency Task Force on Constitutional Reform has given. We don’t want to rush this because precisely haste makes waste. What you will do is try to really have them discuss all the provisions that are proposed by the IATF,”
Rodriguez said that he hoped that the committee will hope next week.
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