President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. expressed his intent to hold a plebiscite for the proposed Charter change along with the midterm elections next year, Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri said on Monday.

Zubiri said Marcos conveyed this during their meeting with 11 other senators in Malacañang after the signing of the Tatak Pinoy Act and the expanded Centenarian Law.

“The President mentioned that he preferred to hold a plebiscite in the 2025 elections because it is very clear that if we do it before the elections, we will spend P12 to P14 billion,” the Senate chief told reporters in a chance interview in the Senate.

“He, himself said it. He is more inclined to hold it alongside the elections in 2025. If that is the case, we do not need to be in a hurry,” he added, referring to the Resolution of Both Houses 6.

October, not March

Given the scenario, Zubiri said the Senate would take its time in discussing the RBH 6, which proposes amendments to economic provisions that concern the public services, education, and the advertising industry.

“So, we can take this up after the break, and complete the resolution, and approve the resolution before the sine die break — our target date,” he said.

“That is our target date because what the President wants eventually, is to force it to the elections of 2025,” he said.

He continued: “We cannot finish it by March because we only have three weeks left. We have many more important measures to take up but definitely, the hearings are continuous.”

He noted this as the House of Representatives started its deliberations on the Resolution of Both Houses 7, the counterpart version of the RBH 6 in the upper chamber.

House Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe, one of the authors of RBH 7, said the House is eyeing to finish its discussion on RBH 7 next month before Holy Week.

Congress is set to take a break from 23 March until 28 April.

The Senate chief said Marcos tasked Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara to “look at the legal possibilities” to “convince” the Commission on Elections to allow the conduct of a plebiscite in the 2025 midterm elections.

This can be done, he said, by adding the “rider question” at the back page of the ballots, along with party-list representatives.

Senate must take charge

According to Zubiri, the President also reiterated his order for the Senate to take charge of the efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution.

“[H]e said and reiterated that let the Senate take the lead. He told us: ‘We’ll allow the Senate to take the lead,” and [he] will ask the House leaders to wait for your output and that they should just adopt it,” he said.

Likewise, he noted that the President is supporting the provision on RBH 6, which specifically states that each House must vote on the proposed economic amendments separately.

“He said: ‘It should be voted upon separately.’ As a matter of fact, he wants the House to adopt our version. Very nice. It was a very good meeting. Very cordial,” he said.

RBH 7 and RBH 6 contain similar provisions, with one exception: the Senate’s resolution stated that the amendments would become effective upon a three-fourths vote of its members, with votes cast separately in each body.

The House’s version, however, did not specify whether the voting for the proposed amendments would be done in a joint or separate session.