Senate-House row simmers down as Zubiri vows to tackle RBH 6

MANILA, Philippines — The escalating tension between the two houses of Congress has simmered down after Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Wednesday announced that a panel would start next week its deliberations on the proposed resolution limiting the move to tinker with the 1987 Constitution to three restrictive economic provisions.

“Everything is taking its course. We just want to lower the political temperature in our country,” Zubiri told reporters, declining to comment further on the people’s initiative that has caused a rift between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, the House leadership challenged the Senate to take up Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6 to make sure the divisive initiative would be “dead in the water,” and as part of an effort to break the longstanding impasse over Charter change (Cha-cha).

House Majority Leader Manuel Dalipe said that once the Senate approves the resolution, the House would immediately adopt it.

At a media briefing on Wednesday, the House leadership welcomed Zubiri’s promise to start tackling RBH 6.

Romualdez, who was not at the briefing called by his allies in the House, said in a separate statement that the upcoming Senate hearings on RBH 6 “mark a significant step toward the much-awaited constitutional amendments.”