Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 2) — Speaker Lord Alan Jay Velasco wants the House of Representatives to approve the resolution proposing charter change in May this year.
In an interview Monday after the flag raising ceremony at the House, Velasco said he will talk about the timeline for passing Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 with its main sponsor, House Constitutional Amendments Committee chairman and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin.
"I have to talk to chairman Pido Garbin first. But actually I see finishing the charter change before the end of May," he said.
Velasco's target is two months later than Garbin's initial target of passing RBH 2 before the House goes on break on March 27.
RBH 2, which is authored by Velasco, seeks to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution to ease restrictions on foreign business ownership.
The Speaker insisted that charter change isn't dead in the water even as some senators have reservations about taking it up in the Senate. He, however, admitted he has yet to discuss RBH 2 with Senate President Vicente Sotto III.
"Nag-usap na po kami ni SP Sotto pero (I've talked to SP Sotto but) right now, we're not really discussing it yet because we still have a year to be able to tackle the whole charter amendments. So to be honest, hindi naman really siya rushed ba (it's not really rushed)," he said.
Velasco maintained charter change will be limited to the economic provisions of the Constitution.
"At the end of the day po, ang tinitingnan natin dito ay mabago po natin ang konstitusyon para mabuksan po ang ating bansa sa mga foreign investors," he said.
[Translation: At the end of the day, what we're looking here is to change our Constitution to open our country to foreign investors.]000
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