'House being faithful to provision on Cha-cha voting'

Leaders of the House of Representatives are standing pat on Resolution of Both Houses 7, their version of economic Charter change, stating that the crucial issue of voting is clearly stipulated in the 1987 Constitution.

- DELON PORCALLA

Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. and Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said that unlike the Senate's Resolution of Both Houses No. 6, which introduced the phrase "each House voting separately," the House version fully complies with the law.

"Those four words are not in the Constitution. Our colleagues in the Senate cannot and should not insist on that language. I am not a lawyer, but that is unconstitutional, as lawyers would say," Gonzales argued.

"We in the House chose to be true to our basic law by quoting exactly what it says, no more, no less," the House leader stated, citing the reason they had to drop such phrase in their RBH-7 even if theirs is "almost a word-for-word reproduction of RBH-6."