Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (left), Larry Gadon (PPAB, Facebook)

For Cagayan de Oro 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, lawyer Larry Gadon’s letter to House Speaker Martin Romualdez on the topic of Charter change (Cha-cha) is quite simply, garbage.

In a statement, Rodriguez, the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments chairman, said that he "has no doubt that his House boss (Romualdez) would just throw the letter into the garbage".

This, after Gadon appealed to Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri to insert political amendments in their purely economic-themed proposals for Cha-cha.

"The Speaker has repeatedly echoed the stand of our President BBM (Bongbong Marcos) that only economic Charter reforms should be considered and effected,” Rodriguez said.

“I urge Speaker Romualdez to completely disregard Gadon’s letter," said the Mindanao legislator.

It was on June 26, 2023 when Gadon was appointed Presidential Adviser on Poverty Alleviation by President Marcos. And as Palace adviser, Gadon should heed the President’s statement on economic Cha-cha, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez recalled that Marcos, in a speech before the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) last Feb. 8, unequivocally stated that he was advocating only economic amendments to existing 1987 Constitution.

He quoted the President as saying: “I want to make it clear: This administration’s position in introducing reforms to our Constitution extends to economic matters alone, or those strategically aimed at boosting our country’s economy. Nothing more.”

Rodriguez is one of the co-authors of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7, the House version of the economic Cha-cha proposal, which only amends provisions on public utility, higher education and advertising. The Senate version is RBH No. 6.

“As a co-author of RBH No.7, I will never support political amendments,” Rodriguez said.

He said it is suggestions like those of Gadon and questions on political changes in surveys such as those included in the recent Pulse Asia poll that confuse the public on the advocacy of the President and leaders of the House and the Senate on economic Charter amendments.

He noted that while most Filipinos supported Charter reform in a recent survey of big data research firm Tangere, the opposite is what was reflected in a Pulse Asia poll.