A House leader said the lower chamber is aiming to pass Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7, which seeks to amend the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, before the 2025 midterm elections.

The House of Representatives will be tackling the proposed amendments starting Monday.

In a radio interview, House Deputy Majority Leader and Tingog Partylist Rep. Jude Acidre said a target date to pass the resolution was in March, but it could be delayed because they will deliberate it as a Committee of the Whole or with the 316 solons.

“It could be delayed, but for reasons that it would make the discussions exhaustive, I think it’s only right that we do it this way because in a committee, the only ones who can attend or ask questions are the members of that committee. So, it’s much better for all of us to be in the Committee of the Whole,” Acidre said.

Acidre is expecting that the passage of RBH 6, the Senate version of the resolution, would not take until October as Senator Sonny Angara previously stated.

“All we can do is to hope that they would pass it faster than what they’ve been saying the deadline will be, it will be sooner than that. My consideration is that if this gets tangled in the 2025 elections, the exercise will become partisan,” he said.

“We don’t want a plebiscite. We don’t want the approval of the amendments in the partisan politics of the 2025 elections. Every day, every time, every month that we delay it’s an opportunity lost to us. Lalo na ngayon, the global economy is slowly reconfiguring itself after the pandemic, we don’t want to miss this opportunity,” he added. Jaspearl Tan/DMS