New Senate President Francis Escudero said Thursday he will meet with House Speaker Martin Romualdez to fix the relationship between both chambers of Congress.

In a press briefing, Escudero said he wants to serve as a “bridge” between the Senate and the House of Representatives to ensure that both houses will have a smooth relationship under his leadership.

“I told him we should talk and meet in the coming week to talk about, first of all, the relationship between the House and the Senate. Hopefully, it would be fixed and there would be no exchange of harsh words. Because even if we don’t agree over over one or three, or several things, that’s not a reason to air dirty laundry in public and to say nonsense words inside or outside of the plenary. It is not proper for a lawmaker to make unparliamentary remarks. That’s where we’ll start before we talk about other issues,” Escudero told reporters.

The relationship between the two chambers of Congress soured after the Senate rejected the push of the House of Representatives for Charter change through people’s initiatives, amid allegations of bribery in collecting signatures for the campaign.

Escudero revealed that the upper chamber would not focus on the passage of the Charter change bill, especially since it did not have enough votes.

“The last time I looked, there were not enough votes and it would not reach (the plenary),” he said, citing that three-fourths of the votes in the Senate were needed for its passage.

Escudero said that he could not promise Romualdez that the Charter change bill would be approved. Jaspearl Tan/DMS