Batasang Pambansa. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives has started the ball rolling for Charter change (Cha-cha), with business leaders endorsing Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and his allies’ initiative to make a surgical revision of economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.
Some lawmakers reckoned that the insertion of a phrase, which would make the Constitution more accommodating to foreign investors, would finally crack the stranglehold of the “1 percent” of Filipinos who control most of the country’s wealth.
Ramon del Rosario Jr., Makati Business Club chair, and Rhicke Jennings, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines president, said they met with Belmonte and close to a dozen lawyer-lawmakers at a restaurant in Quezon City on Monday.
The lawmakers gave a presentation of their strategy and timetable for amending the Constitution.
Aquino against Cha-cha
But Malacañang is against Cha-cha. “We respect the right of Congress to propose amendments to the Constitution,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.
“The President has maintained that there is no need for amendments to the Charter considering that the country has attained significant economic growth even within the limits of the present Constitution,” Coloma added.
Del Rosario, a former finance secretary, said: “[In that meeting], we discussed and I endorsed the proposal of Speaker Belmonte to amend the Constitution by inserting the phrase in those portions of the Constitution that restrict certain economic activities to Filipinos. No other amendments were discussed.”
Jennings, Fedex Express managing director for Indonesia and the Philippines, said: “Note that the Charter proposal does not change anything. Legislation is still required after Charter changes as proposed to lift any restrictions.”
Increase FDI
Jennings said the objectives of Cha-cha was to “increase foreign direct investments (FDI); create jobs, especially for the poor; and improve trade opportunities, especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership engagement.”
Economist Gerardo Sicat, former head of the National Economic and Development Authority, and former Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna also attended the meeting.
According to the Speaker’s game plan, the phrase would be added only to Articles 12 (mineral resources, land ownership and franchises such as telecommunications) and 14 (mass media, education and advertising) of the 1987 Constitution, said Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.
Con-ass hybrid
Under the Constitution, aliens are prohibited from owning land or mass media. But they are allowed to own up to 30 percent of advertising firms, and 40 percent of public utilities, educational institutions, and firms engaged in the exploration of natural resources.
Rodriguez said Congress would employ a “hybrid” of the constituent assembly (Con-ass) method of amending the Constitution in which Congress would legislate the change through a three-fourths vote—first in the House and later in the Senate while acting as a constituent body.
Rodriguez said the approved amendment would then be put to a vote by the people through a plebiscite to coincide with the 2016 national elections.
No Con-con
He said the next Congress would take care of the specific amendments to each investment area.
Rodriguez said he and other lawmakers had decided to scrap their separate proposals to have a constitutional convention (Con-con) to amend the Constitution and adopt Resolution of Both Houses No. 1 filed by Belmonte last July.
Lawmakers, who were present at the meeting, expressed confidence that they would get the job done unlike previous Cha-cha attempts that failed because of the public’s suspicion that lawmakers were interested only in extending their stay in office.
Right time
The previous administrations of Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo each attempted to change the 1987 Constitution, including a shift to a parliamentary form of government.
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said supporters of Cha-cha had committed to block any attempt to insert other amendments aside from the designated phrase.
“The economists told us that there was no better time than now to open the country to more foreign investments, especially since the country has been experiencing sustained growth,” Rodriguez said.
For Barzaga and Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe, opening up the country’s businesses to other players would loosen the grip of a few Filipino businessmen on the economy.
“Competition is absolutely necessary in every endeavor. Monopoly does not benefit the public. Sometimes the public interest is sacrificed because of corporate greed most especially if the monopoly pertains to vital industries of the country,” Barzaga said.
“Hence, the urgent need to liberalize the [79]-year old restrictive economic provisions in the country,” Barzaga said, apparently referring to those contained in the 1935 Constitution that were kept or expanded in the 1987 Constitution.
Big boys club
Batocabe expected the end to the “big boys club” syndrome, which has hampered economic growth outside their circle.
“We will open our economy to a wide array of investors that will instill competition and efficiency, level the playing field and make our industries competitive,” he said.
Batocabe said players in the major industries like telecommunications, mining and power would no longer be limited to a small circle of ‘big boys’ that could manipulate and control prices not unlike what was happening in the power sector.
“Amending the economic provisions to make them flexible to the times is a way of dismantling monopolies, oligopolies and cartels that have become a common characteristic of our major vital industries,” he said.
No class targeted
Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, however, said no specific economic class was targeted by Cha-cha.
“The proposed amendments will simply afford the legislative and executive departments, through the passage of relevant laws, to pursue full economic development without any constitutional impediments,” Fariñas said.
In an economic forum attended by foreign economic leaders last March, former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito presented data in 2011 that showed that the combined fortune of individuals and families on Forbes’ 40 richest Filipinos accounted for 76 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
Habito said this was more than double the share of the Forbes 40 in other countries like Thailand (33.7 percent), Malaysia (5.6 percent) and Japan (2.8 percent).—With a report from Inquirer Research