Senate President Francis "Chiz" wants the Senate and the House of Representatives to cultivate a better relationship first before getting down to business, especially discussing Charter-change (Cha-cha).
During the Kapihan sa Senado on Thursday, May 23, Escudero thanked House Speaker Martin Romualdez for being gentle with his words when it comes to Cha-cha who said he's sure that the Senate would consider economic reforms and amendments for the welfare of the people.
"He is my counterpart in the House and as I’ve said earlier, I expect to meet with him soon during the break. To discuss the relationship," he said.
"Mending what needs to be mended and establishing rules and protocols on how to coordinate with respect to what they are pushing for and with respect to what the Senate is pushing for and to be able to coordinate and avoid misunderstandings or any miscommunication," he added.
The newly installed Senate President said that he will meet with Romualdez in the coming week. He said that the latter sent him a congratulatory message and he thanked him.
"Sabi ko sa kanya mag-usap at mag-kita kami sa darating na linggo marahil para mapag-usapan una sa lahat ang relasyon ng Kamara at Senado. Na sana maayos, wala nang palitan ng maanghang na salita (I told him to meet this coming week to talk about the House and Senate's relation. I hope it gets mended, no more badmouthing)," he said.
He added that disagreements in many things should not be a reason to exchange unparliamentary remarks in public.
"Sa loob o sa labas man ng plenaryo, hindi bagay sa mambabatas magsalita ng unparliamentarily remarks. Doon muna siguro kami mag sisimula bago namin pag-usapan yung ibang mga bagay pa (Inside or outside the plenary, it does not fitting for a lawmaker to mention unparliamentary remarks. We will perhaps start there before talking about other things)," he added.
Discussing Cha-cha
Currently, the subcommittee that is tasked to tackle the economic amendments in the 1987 Constitution under Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 (RBH 6) is without a chairperson after the resignation of Sen. Sonny Angara.
He said that they would discuss during the recess what will be the next course of action regarding it. In the meantime, they cannot act on it yet since Congress is still on break and they would have to wait until it plenary sessions resume in July.
"Hindi naming magagalaw yan hangga’t wala kaming plenary session (We cannot act on that until there's a plenary session). We can’t do it during recess," he said.
However, Escudero said that he was not in favor of creating a subcommittee to tackle RBH 6.
"Sa totoo lang, tutol ako noon na bumuo ng ganyang sub-committee, dahil may committee naman na tumatayo ngayon, ang committee ni Sen. Robinhood Padilla. Hindi ko alam kung bakit inihiwalay iyan. Kung bakit hindi ibinigay kay Sen. Padilla iyan. Dahil may standing committee naman tayo tungkol diyan (In reality, I was against creating that sub-committee, since there is an existing committee under Sen. Robinhood Padilla. I don't know why they created a separate one. On why they didn't give it to Sen. Padilla)," he added.
He said that it would be up to Padilla if he would continue to conduct a hearing on RBH 6.
"Pero sa ngayon, gaya ng sinabi ko, pansamantalang pagpapaliban naming yan (But for now, like I said, we will temporarily cancel it)… this is a pending measure. So we have to decide one way or another, to go about it. But my thrust right now, without consulting my colleagues, is to assign where it should be assigned," he added.