Drilon: No charter change without Palace support

Thursday, October 6, 2011

MANILA--Amending the 1987 Constitution will be impossible without support from the Palace, an administration senator said Thursday.

Although leaders from both the Senate and the House have agreed, in principle, to explore revising the Constitution to relax economic provisions that they say hampers the influx of foreign investments, it will still need a nod from Malacanang.

"We do realize that without the political support of the president, this will not succeed," Senator Franklin Drilon said at a press forum at the Senate. He said that pushing for charter change while Malacanang is against it will be "extremely difficult, if not impossible."

He said Congress leaders will keep on trying to convince President Benigno Aquino III to support amendments.

"I am sure that the President has not closed his mind at this point. The latest announcement that we hear from Malacanang is that he is listening," he said.

Members of the House minority, including Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, have said that Aquino's resistance to charter change is just for show.

"When the allies are pushing for this Constitutional change, the President wants to just stick to his campaign promise that he is not in favor of Cha-cha (charter change) but at the same time will give
the go signal to his allies to proceed with Cha-cha. That’s a moro-moro,” they said Wednesday.(Jonathan de Santos/Sunnex)