MANILA — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri is gathering support for a review of economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution that he said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has tasked the Senate to do.

Zubiri said Marcos gave the instruction at a meeting that House Speaker Martin Romualdez also attended and where the Senate president raised objections to the ongoing people's initiative campaign being spearheaded by PIRMA (People’s Initiative for Reform Modernization and Action).

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PIRMA led a similar campaign during the Ramos administration but the Supreme Court decided in 1997 that there is no law to operationalize people's initiative to amend the constitution.

"While we respect and recognize the people as our sovereign, with the right to call for constitutional change, we must guard against any attempt to revise the Constitution by exploiting our democratic process under the guise of a people's initiative," Zubiri said in his opening statement at a press briefing on Monday.

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"The proposal subject of the people's initiative could have led to a constitutional crisis, destabilizing our bicameralism and upsetting the system of checks and balances," he said.

The current people's initiative campaign seeks to amend the Constitution to have the chambers of Congress vote jointly on future amendments and revisions to the charter.

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"While the Senate is vehemently opposed to a dilution of its participation in the task of reviewing the Constitution, we exercised all restraint, because in any conflict, it is always the people who stand to suffer the most," Zubiri added.

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MEETINGS WITH MARCOS

The Senate president said that he met with Marcos on Jan. 9 and 11 to express his opposition to the people's initiative campaign.

Marcos, who previously said that the Constitution should be reviewed to see if it needs amendments or revisions, also said that he is opposed to the signature campaign, Zubiri said.

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He said that the President then instructed senators to review the economic provisions of the Constitution in the context of the Public Service Act, which has been amended to allow foreign ownership in certain public services like airports, railways, expressways and telecommunications.

He added that Marcos advised the House of Representatives to adopt the proposed Senate resolution if carried.

Under Zubiri's resolution, which needs 18 votes to be adopted, the review will be led by Sen. Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee.