Democratic and progressive organizations led by the No to Cha-cha Network protested at the House of Representatives last March 20. On that day, Congress passed the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 7 for charter change (chacha). The resolution was favored by 287 congressmen, while eight opposed it, including representatives of the Makabayan bloc.

In just three weeks, Congress railroaded deliberations to ram the proposal that began on February 27. This is the quickest in the history of attempts by regimes to pass a charter change proposal.

The RBH7 is a counterpart proposal to RBH6 filed in the Senate. The leadership of the lower house said congressmen did not change anything and the RBH7 is only a copy of RBH6, which aims to change the provisions limiting foreign ownership in some sectors of the economy.

The Senate pushed RBH 6 to counter the people’s initiative that was organized by the lower house leadership at the beginning of this year. This initiative aims to remove the role of the senate in any charter change. In proposing RBH6, the senate intends to lead the chacha and ensure its own agenda.

According to the resolution, only three provisions will be changed when the Lower and Upper Houses formed themselves into a constituent assembly with separate voting. Foreigners will be given the right to fully own public utilities (Article XII, Section 11); education sector (Article IX, Section 4); and advertising (Article XVI, Section 11). According to the regime’s plan, the changes will be included in the plebiscite coinciding with the 2025 election.

According to the No to Chacha Network, their group is preparing for the next and bigger protests against chacha. “Similar proposals for chacha were passed in the Lower House in the past but all of them thwarted by huge rallies and demonstrations. It will not be different now,” they said.