The House plenary. (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

House Majority Leader Zamboanga City 2nd district Rep. Mannix Dalipe shared in his sponsorship speech for Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No.7 that he is even more convinced now that the country needs economic Charter change (Cha-cha). 

"We have spent a total of six days of committee meetings equivalent 2,485 minutes or more than 41 hours of exhaustive and lengthy deliberations to listen to a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary expertise presented by our respected resource persons," Dalipe said in plenary Monday, March 11. 

He was referring to the recent plenary discussions on RBH No.7, carried out by the 300-plus strong House of Representatives acting as a Committee of the Whole.  

"After hearing the arguments, views and comments of our respected colleagues and resources person who are notable experts of law, international trade and foreign direct investments (FDI), I am more convinced that the current economic provisions, which have remained unmanned for 37 years, necessitate changes," said Dalipe. 

"By adding the phrase 'unless otherwise provided by law', we, the Congress of the Philippines, will have the authority to alter the economic restrictions on public utilities, education and advertising, and provide flexibility in economic policy that the current economic conditions demand," he noted. 

Monday's sponsorship of RBH No.7, which espouses the lifting of these economic prohibitions in the 1987 Constitution, paves the way for the measure's approval on second reading later this week, specifically Wednesday. 

Dalipe said in a press conference earlier Monday that the plenary debates on RBH No.7 would still be "exhaustive" moving forward. 

This, despite the expectation that the plenary debates on RBH No. 7 would be shorter than the two-week proceedings of the Committee of the Whole House, where experts on law, education, advertising, the Constitution, and other resource persons gave their views on the proposed economic amendments. 

“I am so sure that this (plenary) will not be longer. Based on our experience, the plenary sponsorship and debate on the second reading of RBH No.7 will be quite a little bit shorter than those compared with the Committee of the Whole House...Although we would exhaustively discuss this, that’s why we are giving three days for the debates on the second reading,” he explained. 

Dalipe said the time the House would allot for plenary debates would depend on the number of members who would register with him to ask questions about the amendment proposals.