Cha-cha again?

“No matter how popular Charter change is to the members of Congress, as long as the Senate does not go along, these proposed amendments will probably not even hit first base.

Cha-cha (Charter change) is again alive and well in the House of Representatives, but it is expected to have a quick death once it hits the Senate that has historically shied away from voting for constitutional changes.

But no matter. As far as the House committee on constitutional amendments is concerned, changes to the 1987 Charter will push through, with voting scheduled today, after committee chairman Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriquez announced that public consultations in the three main regions on proposed amendments to the Constitution had been concluded.

The proposed amendments to the Charter haven’t changed. While one proposed amendment has not been made the focus, it is evident that which appears to be most important to the congressmen is the proposed lifting of the term limits, to ensure that congressmen get at the very least, a five year term which is claimed to have popular support.

Rodriquez was quoted as saying that the increase in the terms of office for local officers and district representatives for a five-year term is popular “because three years is too short for these officials to implement their programs and projects.”

Is this really popular with the electorate or popular just among the members of Congress? The congressmen can stay in their seats for nine years, with one election or two re-elections. Lifting term limits is not a popular sentiment with the Filipino electorate.

Other amendments proposed that are claimed to have garnered popular support are the election of senators by region and the those of the president and vice president in tandem, along with lifting foreign ownership or equity restrictions that Rodriquez said will address the high rate of unemployment in the country.

One proposed amendment that would be approved by the Filipinos would be the proposed bloc voting for the president and vice president candidates. We have had the very bad political experience of the president and VP coming from different parties, and end up bickering instead of supporting each other.

However, not even this proposal would get the electorate behind constitutional change.

Another proposed amendment that will, in all probability, cause the death of Cha-cha is that which calls for the election of senators on a per region basis to ensure that all of the country’s regions will be represented in the Senate and assure development in the countryside.

Such a proposal had already been aired in the past, and too many senators have expressed their objections, not only to this specific amendment but also to their proposed changes in the constitution.

Senators have always been elected on a national basis, never on a regional basis. It has been said that candidates for the Senate prefer to run on a national level, because some, if not many of them, past and present, because of their being popular figures and therefore, are known nationally and also because some of these senators have no bailiwick for them to win on a regional level.

Another amendment being proposed by the House panel is the introduction of “economic Cha-cha,” which has been described as aiming to “lift the limitations on foreign investments in public utilities and the development in natural resources in order to have more employment for Filipinos. The Philippines is lagging behind its ASEAN neighbors in the amount of foreign direct investments,” it was stressed.

There is doubt that the lifting of limitations on foreign investments in public utilities and the development in natural resources to opens wide the door to more employment to the Filipinos.

Foreign investments through projects do help create more employment to the Filipinos, but such can’t be the main reason, since at this time, even under the present Constitution, big projects are now in the works, on a partnership basis between foreign firms and local companies, and current employment opportunities have helped bring about a much lower poverty figure existing today in the country under the Duterte presidency.

This is, of course, not to say that the idea of opening up the Charter to the lifting of limitations on foreign investments, should be junked, along with the other highly restrictive provisions in the 1987 Constitution that decree 100 percent Filipino ownership as there are always advantages that may outweigh whatever disadvantages there would likely be in such instances.

Still, no matter how popular Cha-cha is to the members of Congress — especially when it comes to their having a five year term — as long as the Senate does not go along, these proposed amendments will probably not even hit first base.

And this may be a good thing for Filipinos and the Philippines.