House panel OKs Cha-cha resolution

MANILA, Philippines — Less than a month after it resumed hearings, the House committee on constitutional amendments has approved a resolution amending restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution while retaining the ban on foreign ownership of land.

Voting 64-3-3, the committee approved on Monday Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 2 proposed by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.

Bayan Muna Representatives Carlos Zarate and Ferdinand Gaite, and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro voted against the proposed amendments.

House Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano, Quezon City Rep. Jose Christopher Belmonte and Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla abstained.

No land for foreigners

Under RBH 2, the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” would be added to Articles 12 (national patrimony and economy), 14 (education, science and technology) and 16 (general provisions) of the Constitution.

The approved amendments would ease restrictions on the ownership and management of mass media, public utilities, educational institutions, investments and capital for foreign investors.

But upon the motion of Rep. Lorenz Defensor, the committee vice-chair, lawmakers agreed to drop the proposal to allow foreigners to own private land in the Philippines.

The panel thus excluded the amendment to Article 12, Section 7, which states that “no private lands shall be transferred or conveyed except to individuals, corporations, or associations qualified to acquire or hold lands of the public domain.”

Economic amendments

Under RBH 2, the House and the Senate would vote separately to approve the economic amendments.

Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr., the committee chair, said plenary debates would start in mid-February. He earlier suggested that the plebiscite, where the people would vote for or against the proposed amendments, be held simultaneously with the 2022 national elections to cut on costs.

“It is about time we correct this unintended anomaly by introducing an amendment that gives the legislature the freedom to amend those time-bound laws that have been enshrined in the Constitution to the detriment of the common good of the Filipinos now and in the future,” Garbin said.

Velasco said in a statement that “the need to attract foreign capital [was] critical to support our economy’s recovery from Covid-19.”

But for Zarate, Charter change (Cha-cha) was “ill-timed and [would] only aggravate as well as worsen the country’s already bad shape and sinking economy.”

‘Ill-timed’

“Cha-cha now is very ill-timed especially with the pandemic and our economy in shambles. If Cha-cha pushes through now, then foreigners would have a heyday gobbling up wholesale what is left in our already much liberalized economy,” he said.

“Our national patrimony would be put on sale to the highest foreign bidder at the further expense of our local industry,” Zarate added.

Castro said the House “should prioritize its immediate response [to] the economic and health crisis that the Filipino people are facing every day.”

“The high prices of basic goods, growing number of Covid-19 cases, the perennial problems in transport services, and most especially the continuing crisis in education, especially with the administration’s failed blended distance learning, needs to be addressed first instead of this self-serving and antipoor Charter change,” she said.

“The pandemic response should not be dependent on changing the Constitution. This Cha-cha is not for the people. In fact, it will be used to further silence the marginalized by attempting to remove progressive party lists from the Makabayan bloc,” she warned.