THERE is no legal impediment to holding a plebiscite on Charter change during the 2025 national and local elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Tuesday.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said this assertion was the result of a study submitted by the Comelec Law Department to the Commission en banc for its consideration.

"According to the study, the national and local elections and the plebiscite can be held simultaneously because there is no provision in law that says otherwise," Garcia said.

The same study cited the Supreme Court ruling in Occena v. Comelec, which stated that there is no specific provision prohibiting the same.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia

Garcia said the Comelec has done this before, when it held a plebiscite on the conversion of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, into a highly urbanized city, along with village and youth elections in October 2023.

In the Occena v. Comelec case, one of the questions raised was the legality of the joint holding of an election and a plebiscite, but Garcia said the Supreme Court never really answered the question.

He also pointed out that Occena v. Comelec was filed before the 1987 Constitution and that during the constitutional convention, the legality of a simultaneous election and plebiscite was affirmed.

If the plan to hold both the elections and the plebiscite at the same time in 2025 pushes through, all the Comelec needs is a joint resolution from the Senate and the House of Representatives, Garcia said.

"In the end, the ultimate decision on what to do and what kind of election the Comelec will do will all depend on the law, the Constitution and what Congress will say," he said.

The Comelec, he added, is ready and has the capability to conduct a regular election and a plebiscite at the same time with only minimal adjustments in the size of the ballot and at no cost to the government, except for the additional allowance for public school teachers who will be assigned to the precincts on election day.

He said it would cost the government at least P13 billion if the plebiscite is held separately from the 2025 elections.

In contrast, the additional P2,000 honoraria for some 350,000 public school teachers would cost the government much less.

While President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and lawmakers favor holding the plebiscite and elections simultaneously, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said doing so would politicize the question of Charter change.

"The reason ... we are fast-tracking this discussion on the amendments [to the Constitution] is we want to insulate this from political innuendos and political interpretation," Adiong said at a press briefing Tuesday.

"We want to finish the discussions on amending the economic provisions of the Constitution so these will not become subject to political contests," he said in Filipino.

On Monday, the House Committee of the Whole started deliberations on Resolution of Both Houses 7 (RBH 7).

House Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. said the House would hold three hearings weekly and try to obtain a vote before the Holy Week break in March.

RBH 7 seeks the same amendments as RBH 6 filed in the Senate. Both resolutions aim to amend provisions of the Constitution to make the country more attractive to foreign investments.

The Senate started its deliberations on RBH 6 earlier this month.

Like RBH 6, RBH 7 covered Article XII (Section 11), Article XIV (paragraph 2 of Section 4), and Article XVI (paragraph 2 of Section 11).

Both RBHs seek to add the words "unless otherwise provided by law" to these provisions. Both RBHs also seek to add the word "basic" before the words "educational institutions" in the first sentence of paragraph 2, Section 4 of Article XIV.

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