Dalipe: Terminate all Senate PI proceedings

House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe appealed to the Senate on Friday to terminate its probe into alleged payoffs linked to the ongoing people's initiative and get down to the prompt passage of a resolution that would smooth the path for Charter change.

Dalipe hinged his call on the Commission on Elections's recent decision to stop all PI proceedings, including accepting signature sheets in its local offices.

Comelec chief George Garcia on Monday said that all signature pages the poll body has accepted will remain in local offices.

"This means that the PI is in the freezer, for now. So, what is there to investigate, unless the purpose is to target some personalities, embarrass them? The Senate inquiry is just a waste of taxpayers' money that could otherwise be used for productive purposes," Dalipe stressed.

Instead, he said, the Senate should assist Senate President Juan Miguel Zuburi to beat the chamber's self-imposed deadline to pass Resolution of Both Houses No. 6, which proposes amendments to the Constitution's Articles XII, XIV, and XVI,

Earlier this week, Senator Imee Marcos, head of the Senate committee on electoral reforms and people's participation, kicked off the probe into the alleged signature-buying drive for a PI, purportedly shepherded by the leaders of the House of Representatives.

The controversial petition to revamp the 1987 Constitution saw Senator Marcos and her cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez, trading a heated exchange.

The senator has accused the Speaker of being the architect of the drive to muster signatures for a PI, which the latter vehemently denied.

Marcos threw allegations against Romualdez that his office offers P20 million each to legislative districts in exchange for their constituents' signatures to push through with the PI and that he is also behind executing a timeline for Charter change, to conclude by 9 July.

Romualdez, who admitted that he's not been on good terms with Marcos, brushed off such allegations and challenged his cousin to prove that he has indeed a hand to the PI.

The Marcos-led panel carried on with the investigation in Davao City on Friday, with former president Rodrigo Duterte among the guests.

Duterte earlier slammed efforts to amend the Constitution, saying it would only perpetuate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and other sitting officials in power.

Proponents in the House, however, are keen that the objective of Cha-cha is merely to relax the restrictive economic restrictions on entering foreign capital and investments in the country and the other way around.