The leadership of the House of Representatives is fixated ‘’non-stop’’ with amending the ‘’restrictive’’ economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution although the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is on a deadly march throughout the archipelago.         

This was the lament of Camarines Sur Representative LRay Villafuerte Saturday, March 20, even as both the Senate and the House of Representatives are scheduled to go on a two-month recess starting late next week.         

Villafuerte told House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco to “quit this seeming obsession with Cha-Cha (Charter Change)" and instead "be at the wheel" of efforts helping the Duterte administration's inoculation program.         

The Department of Health (DOH) reported that new Covid-19 cases went up to an all-time high of 7,103 last Friday, surpassing the previous record of 6,958 logged last August 10.         

“The OCTA Research group fret that the daily infection rate could go up to an alarming 10,000 to 11,000 by end-March in Metro Manila, the anti-COVID-19 task force has implemented or is considering stricter mobility restrictions, and hospitals are getting full with coronavirus patients,” Villafuerte said.         

"I am flummoxed by the fact that all that the House leadership seems to be thinking of at this time is to keep the Speaker’s Cha-Cha initiative on overdrive," he continued.         

Villafuerte said the House leadership "appears to be in denial" that the coronavirus situation has taken a turn for the worse —and should be the Chamber’s number one priority concern right now."         

Speaker Velasco himself last week placed the Batasan complex on a four-day lockdown in response to the rocketing number of cases in the metropolis and neighboring provinces, he noted.         

“And all that the House leadership seems to be concerned about is for the House and Senate to pass the Speaker’s proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution before the year is over.”         

He described the Cha-Cha initiative as ‘’a futile political exercise’’, since senators have said that constitutional reform is not their priority amid the pandemic. “So why is the House still squandering its time and energy on this Cha-Cha initiative that already looks dead in the water?" he asked.         

While conceding that he has long advocated for the lifting of the Charter’s economic provisions that restrict foreign participation in businesses, Villafuerte said he believes "now is the wrong time to pursue it as this highly divisive issue would only sidetrack national focus and attention from the country’s exigent concerns of pandemic response and economic recovery."         

Villafuerte is a known ally of Taguig-Pateros representative Alan Peter Cayetano, who was replaced by Velasco following a controversial feud over the House leadership last year.