Passing laws, not changing Charter, may be enough to attract investors, says Drilon

MANILA, Philippines—Instead of amending the  Constitution,  Congress may simply pass economic laws that can provide “better investment climate” that Charter change seeks  to achieve, Senator Franklin Drilon said on Thursday.

Drilon acknowledged that any efforts to amend the charter  might  not have a chance in Congress without the  support of the  Aquino administration.

“The  reality is the political leadership,  President (Benigno Aquino III ) is not convinced that we need Cha-Cha (Charter change),”  he said during a weekly forum at the Senate.

“That is why I enumerated those economic laws, which short of Cha-Cha, can provide the  environment of better investment climate that Cha-Cha seeks to achieve,” he said.

Drilon said the economic laws he was referring to were  the bills  that the new majority bloc  would  prioritize  in the 16^th Congress.

Among them were the rationalization of the Fiscal Incentive Act, amendments to the Mining Law, and Tax Incentive, Monitoring and Transparency Act,  amendments to the Build Operate and Transfer Law; amendments to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Act  to strengthen the banking sector, among others.

Newly-elected Senator  Cynthia Villar backed Drilon’s  proposal to  push for  economic  laws, instead of amending  the Constitution, saying such  move was less controversial.

“Why do we have to go through the process of amending the Constitution if we can do it by just passing a law?  Basta hindi lang magiging unconstitutional (So long  as it will not be  unconstitutional),” Villar said  in a separate interview.

“If it can be done  that way,  less controversy, isn’t it?” she added.