House approves bill on public utility ownership

The House of Representatives approved on Friday a bill providing a statutory definition for public utility, which lawmakers feared may allow foreigners to have public ownership without the need for charter change.

During Friday’s plenary session before the start of the budgetary plenary debates, House Bill 5828 was approved on third and final reading by 135 lawmakers, while eight lawmakers voted against it.

According to the bill, public utility is defined as covering three sectors – the distribution of electricity, transmission of electricity, and the water pipeline distribution system or sewerage pipeline system.

Its main objective is to clarify the definition of public utility to open up the industry to competition, according to the committee report.

But Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman opposed the bill, warning that it may open the economy to foreign ownership without the need to amend the foreign ownership provisions in the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

In explaining his no vote, Lagman said the bill deleted from the Public Service Act a provision which reflects the Filipino ownership requirement of public utilities in the Charter.

The Constitution requires public utilities to be owned by Filipino citizens or by corporations, partnerships or associations where not less than 60 percent of the capital stock is owned by Filipino citizens.

“Without waiting for an amendment to the economic provisions of the Constitution either by a Constituent Assembly or Constitutional Convention, the House leadership has prioritized the enactment of House Bill No. 5828 which ostensibly provides for a statutory definition of a public utility but which is actually a subterfuge to allow foreigners to own public utility enterprises without complying with the citizenship requirement imposed by the Constitution,” Lagman said in an earlier statement.

“In its definition of a public utility, House Bill No. 5828 has deliberately deleted the concept of ownership and limited the definition to the operation, management and control of public utilities even as there can be no operation, management or control without an owner,” he added.

Lagman said the bill also deletes from the enumeration of public utilities the traditional public utilities like common carriers and telecommunications companies, which are controlled by Filipinos.

“The amendments of this Representation to assure compliance with the citizenship requirement of the Constitution, cleanse the bill of unconstitutional infirmities, and include traditional public utilities in the enumeration of public utilities, were all voted down,” Lagman said.

For his part, Act Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said the bill seeks to remove the protection in the Constitution accorded to Filipino ownership in the economy against foreign ownership.

“Malinaw na layunin nito na ikutan ang pagbabawal sa pagmamayari ng buo ng mga dayuhan sa public utilities…. Malinaw na intensyon nito ay kontrahin ang intensyon ng Konstitusyon na pangalagaan ang interes ng publiko sa pamamagitan ng pagtiyak ng mga pribadong kumpanya na maglilingkod o magbibigay ng mahahalagang serbisyo sa mga Pilipino ay mananatili sa pag-aari ng mga Filipino,” Tinio said. KGA / JPV

READ: Solon fears HB 5828 a shortcut for foreigners to own public utility enterprises