Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri has not instructed the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments to stop their hearings, Senator Robin Padilla said Monday.

“I was not given any instruction to stop the hearings. In fact, the Senate President told me to continue,” Padilla, chairman of the Senate Committee of Constitutional Amendments, said at a press briefing.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said over the weekend that the Senate could not garner enough votes for amending the 1987 Constitution.

“At the end of the day we do not have votes. We really cannot get 18 votes for charter change. So in other words, why should we do it? We are wasting a lot of time and effort. We are wasting energy and funding discussing a measure that doesn’t even have votes. That’s why I said it is not a priority at this point in time,” Zubiri told DWIZ last Saturday.

For his part, Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito said the Palace has not given them a “go-signal” to take up the amendments to the Constitution.

“Honestly, we have not received any signal yet from the President himself. That’s why the Senate is still busy with other equally important issues,” Ejercito said in a separate press conference.

Ejercito said senators are open to charter change as long as they can be assured that only the economic provisions will be amended.

“That’s what we (senators) are worried about. if they open the amendments, then they might also change the political aspect. That’s what we are sensitive about because we do not want anything that would benefit the present officials. So that’s the worry of some senators because if we open the amendments, it’s really open. We cannot be assured that only the economic provisions will be amended,” he said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS