PUSPUSAN umano ang gagawing pagtalakay ng plenaryo ng Kamara de Representantes sa Resolution of Both Houses No. 7, na naglalayong amyendahan ang economic provisions ng Konstitusyon.

Ito ang sinabi ni House Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” M. Dalipe na naniniwala na matatapos ang pagtalakay ng plenaryo ng Kamara sa panukala sa Miyerkoles na susundan na pagboto rito para sa ikalawang pagbasa.

“Ine-expect namin na maraming pwedeng magtanong, so we are, binibigyan natin ng tatlong araw na plenary debates ang ating RBH No. 7. Hindi lang isang araw, hindi lang dalawang araw kundi tatlong araw na debates, deliberation on second reading. And hopefully by Wednesday, we can vote on the matter on second reading,” ani Dalipe sa isang news briefing.

Ayon kay Dalipe ang haba ng magiging debate ay nakadepende sa dami ng mga kongresista na nais na magtanong kaugnay ng resolusyon.

“We resume session at 3 p.m. Depending on the number of interpellators, we will see up to what time we will adjourn session. But definitely, we will give all members of the House who would want to discuss, interpellate and debate on the matter…their opportune time,” sabi ni Dalipe.

Kumpiyansa namamn si Dalipe na mas magiging maikli ang deliberasyon sa plenaryo kumpara sa naging pagtalakay dito ng Committee of the Whole House kung saan mayroong mga inimbitahang resource persons.

“So, mas mahaba po iyong oras doon sa Committee of the Whole House kasi mahaba rin iyong mga sagot ng ating mga resource person at we would like to get all the datas and inputs especially from those who have experiences in the global perspective,” sabi nito.

“I am so sure that this (plenary) will not be longer. Based on our experience, the plenary sponsorship and debate on the second reading of RBH7 will be quite a little bit shorter than those compared with the Committee of the Whole House. Dito, although we would exhaustively discuss this, that’s why we are giving three days for the debates on the second reading,” dagdag pa ni Dalipe.

Ayon naman kay Cagayan de Oro City 1st District Rep. Lordan Suan ang haba ng oras na ginugugol sa pagtalakay sa RBH 7 ay patunay na nais ng Kamara na makagawa ng isang magandang panukala.

“Both sides are really given a chance to air out their opinions, their concerns. I think this is very important for a democracy. So that, if this passes it means that it has gone through a baptism of fire and that is exactly what we need,” sabi pa ni Suan.

“It’s been said that the purpose of argument or discussion should not be victory but progress. And progress is what we are aiming for in all our discussions on economic charter change,” dagdag pa nito.

Nagpasalamat naman si 1-RIDER Partylist Rep. Rodge Gutierrez sa liderato ng Kamara dahil hinahayaan nito ang pagsasagawa ng malayang talakayan sa naturang mahalagang isyu.

“Thankfully, the leadership under Speaker (Ferdinand Martin) Romualdez, they assured us that it would be exhaustive and they were exhaustive. We would finish our hearings at 10p.m., 11 p.m., at talagang they didn’t closed the day until lahat po nakapag interpellate,” sabi ni Gutierrez.

“So moving forward into the process…we are anticipating that the same exhaustive deliberations would be afforded po to the members of the minority that we would have that assurance that we could really thresh out these issues kahit dito po sa plenary deliberations,” dagdag pa nito.