ALLIES of President Benigno Aquino III in the House of Rep-resentatives yesterday agreed to begin the public consultations and hearing on Charter Change on May 27 in Cagayan de Oro.

Misamis Oriental Rep. Loreto Ocampos, chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said they intend to conduct public consultations in several provinces in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao until they convince the public that there is a need to rewrite the Constitution.

According to Ocampos, they will first focus on four issues — economic reforms, judicial reforms, local government reforms and the form of government.

He added that the sentiment of the majority of the lawmakers is to amend the Constitution through Constitutional Convention.

“We will sell Charter Change. We will go around the country and listen to the people first then we’ll give the positive points of Charter Change,” Ocampos said.

The lawmaker said they decided to push Cha-cha since President Benigno Aquino seems open to the idea of amending the Charter.

But he clarified that there is no marching orders from  Malacañang  about Cha-cha, saying this is their own initiative.

He said that they intend to finish discussions on Cha-cha by the third quarter of the year to avoid suspicion of term extension for the incumbents.