Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Sunday admitted Charter Change can be easily defeated in the Senate as he sees three or four more senators who are not yet convinced on amending some specific economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.
During an interview at DWPM (63 AM radio), Zubiri was questioned about Chacha losing in the Upper Chamber.
“And I can count, and I still can count about three or four who are not yet convinced,” the lawmaker said.
“But practicality-wise, I have so much difficulty in getting votes for the economic provisions. It’s very hard for me to obtain the needed three-fourths vote for the economic provisions,” he further said.
As of now, they lack the number of votes for Chacha, which provides full foreign ownership on public utilities, education and advertising.
“To be honest, we don’t have the 18 votes as of now for the economic provisions alone.”
“What you will ad to it […] the political provisions […] which are very unpopular among our people. And I know the Senate is very sensitive to the will of the people. I doubt if we can even get and muster half the Senate to agree to the political provisions,” he said.
He also surmised that Chacha might be a campaign issue among senators who are re-electionists.
Zubiri has pointed out, however, that he is not losing hope because “I also believe that there should be constitutional reforms.”
“We have to be practical about it. So, I and Sen. Sonny Angara talked that if we cannot get the number, then this can be made a political issue when the 2025 elections arrive.
In other words, the administration can say, we will support pro-Chacha candidates. “Because if the administration will have 12 pro-Chacha senators who will win in the next elections, that’s an additional 12 votes coming into the 2025 elections,” he explained.
“Due to this, I suggested that if we cannot convince (anti-) chacha senators in the next few months, since we’re going for the preparations for the 2025 elections, then I would suggest the next step for the administration is to push for a pro-constitutional reform stand,” further stressed the Senate leader.
When the campaign period starts, he said the administration will then push for pro-Charter Change initiatives.
On this note, it is now the public’s discretion if they will go for pro-Chacha or anti-Chacha senators.
He noted that it will eventually be boiling down to that issue.
“But as of now, we are still capable (of convincing),” he said.
He related the gap for anti-charter change and pro-charter change senators in the Senate is not that big.
“So right, definitely, we ate trying our best to convince some of our colleagues. But we will respect all individual views,” he said.
Those identified as anti- Chacha lawmakers are senators Cynthia Villar and Imee Marcos, and the two opposition senators: the Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros.
He also sees four more senators who are not in favor of Chacha. “I will not reveal their names because I’m not at liberty to do so. They have not spoken in public, but they’ve been very vocal wirthin our caucus wherein they were saying they are against Chacha.
For example, he said, Sen. Chiz Escudero also doesn’t like Chacha.