“We shook hands and we’ve agreed to talk to each other for another meeting,” said Senate President Migz Zubiri as he posed for the cameras along with House Speaker Martin Romualdez during the 100th birthday party for Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile hosted by Malacañang last 14 February.

“We had a good meeting with the Speaker and we agreed to work together to set aside our differences and pass legislation for our people; that’s our message on the day of hearts,” added Zubiri, as he and his counterpart in the Lower House — the object of derision by senators for some three weeks — smiled broadly as press photographers trained their cameras on them.

Since the Senate’s uproar at finding out that members of the Lower House had been gathering, and allegedly paying for, signatures for a People’s Initiative for both houses of Congress to vote jointly, instead of separately, on Charter change proposals, the senators had dropped their own version of the House’s Resolution of Both Houses Number 6.

The Commission on Elections, too, announced that it will suspend the People’s Initiative on Charter change, with Comelec Chair George Garcia saying that all Comelec offices and election officers in the local levels would cease receiving the signature sheets related to the PI.

“All proceedings related to signature drives seeking to amend the Charter are suspended since there is a need to review, enhance and put additional provisions in our implementing rules and regulations concerning the PI,” declared Garcia.

The fact that Garcia, it would seem, thought of suspending the move to push for a PI only after the Senate raised a big stink about it — dragging the President into the fray with his own sister, Senator Imee Marcos, asking him to “stand firm” and end the PI — is highly suspicious.

His own words, that is, “suspending the PI pending a review of the rules,” gives critics of that particular method — a PI — much less Charter change as a whole, no comfort.

Call them paranoid, but certain sectors of society who have long been wary of the games that politicos play aren’t sold on a ceasefire between the House and the Senate, nor the Comelec chief’s announcement that the poll body will stop, for now, accepting people’s signatures for Cha-cha via a PI while the commissioners give the matter further study.

The fact that people’s signatures were gathered to amend provisions of the Constitution without benefit of careful study is “alarming,” said Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president, Kalookan prelate Pablo Virgilio David, in a statement.

“It seems that this people’s initiative was initiated by only a few public servants and not truly on the initiative of ordinary citizens. If this is the case, it involves deception and a disregard for a true and free participation in the democratic process. Is that good?” David said.

NO, exclaimed at least 10 other bishops from various regions in Mindanao who released on 14 February a stinging statement directed at politicians over what they called a fake move to amend the current Charter to serve vested interests.

Saying that they had received numerous reports from parishes and communities regarding signatures being collected in exchange for government aid, the bishops from several denominations declared that “this initiative is a sham, as it does not emanate voluntarily from us, the people.”

Signatories to their joint statement were Catholic Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Jose Cabantan along with bishops heading dioceses of the Philippine Independent Church in Eastern Mindanao, Bukidnon, Pagadian, Sugbongcogon, Oroguieta City, Koronadal and Cagayan de Oro, as well as the United Church of Christ in the Philippines which has covenant relations with the Iglesia Ni Kristo.

Also on the same day, religious and civic organizations gathered at the Knights of Columbus headquarters in Manila to form the Koalisyon Laban sa Cha-Cha to oppose attempts to amend the existing Charter.

Instead of revising the Charter, said the coalition comprised of representatives from both the Church and the laity, as well as Senator Risa Hontiveros and Kidapawan Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, the government should take pains to quash corruption, protect the environment, and ensure the integrity of elections.

Now, as both Houses of Congress try to pick up the pieces of RHB6, people’s awareness have been heightened, the clergy in the country has been made more vigilant and forces opposed to the incumbent hover above the ruling establishment like vultures, while foreign investors wait and watch to see if they have a viable haven to invest their money in.

We can only hope and pray that ultimately, the people and the economy won’t turn out to be the losers in these games that politicians play.