Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. has refiled in the current 20th Congress an economic Charter Change (Cha-cha) mesaure, but with a twist.

On Tuesday morning, the lawyer-congressman filed Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No.

1, which sought to amend targeted economic and territorial provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

The novelty here was the proposed tweak to the territorial provision of the Charter, which Garbin highlighted just days after the Philippines celebrated the ninth anniversary of its arbitral case victory against China on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue.

Following his filing of the RBH No.1 Tuesday, Garbin played up the proposed territorial amendments more than the old, repeated economic amendments.

"My contribution in upholding the arbitral case that we won and the UNCLOS," he said, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

"Kailangan na natin ilagay ito sa ating Constitution (We must incluse this in the Constitution)," Garbin added.

RBH No.1 bats for the explicit inclusion of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), continental shelf, and the WPS as part of the national territory.

"Let me just share to you that Article I of the 1987 Constitution states that the National Territory comprises the Philippine Archipelago with all the islands and the water in place therein and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial and aerial domain including the territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil and other submarine areas," Garbin said.

"Though the article mentions of territorial sea, but it is silent on the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf, which we won valiantly in the arbitral case," he noted.

Issued on July 12, 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague in the Netherlands, the arbitral award invalidated China’s sweeping nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea, where the WPS is located.

Aside from Article I, the resolution also zeroes in on Articles XII, XIV, and XVI, with the purpose of easing the restrictic economic provisions of the Charter.

Garbin says the measure doesn't touch on political term limits or governance structures, which are traditional sticking points whenever Cha-cha is taken up in Congress.

Garbin, who steered key constitutional reform discussions during his tenure as Committee on Constitutional Amendments chairman, described the measure as a “credible and focused reform effort” aligned with both international law and national development needs.

Other key provisions of RBH No.1 include the adoption of “unless otherwise provided by law” in select economic provisions, which would allow Congress flexibility to legislate economic measures without needing constitutional amendments.

These include the 60 percent Filipino citizenship requirement in the (1) “exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources", (2) transfer and conveyance of private land, (3) operation of public utilities, and (4) ownership of educational institutions, other than those run by religious groups and mission boards.

Also to be reviewed is the 100 percent requirement in the ownership and management of mass media. Same for the 70 percent Filipino citizenship requirement to engage in the advertising industry, Garbin said.