Senator warns ‘Cha-cha’ for economic reforms courts security risks

A SENATOR on Thursday warned against amending the 1987 Constitution to ease economic restrictions in favor of foreign investors, because doing so may expose the country to greater security risks that endanger national interests.

“Amending the Constitution to open more of our most crucial industries — like public utilities, education, and advertising — to 100% foreign ownership will only expose us to security risks and weaken our national interests in a time of global unrest,” Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel said in a statement.

She said lawmakers must focus on more pressing concerns of the public, including high prices of commodities, as well as the call for higher wages and a better transport system.

As a priority, the senator said the government must improve the ease of doing business and eliminate corruption before inviting foreign investors to the country.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who supports Charter change or “Cha-cha,” said agricultural and indigenous peoples’ lands should not be included when allowing foreigners to fully own lands.

“While we support policies that would attract foreign investments to help underpin local economic growth, we should not allow the displacement of our local farmers and our indigenous people,” he said in a separate statement.

The Senate will review economic provisions of the 1987 charter, seeking to insert the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” in sections of the Constitution to open public services, education, and advertising to foreign investments.

The House of Representatives, on the other hand, is looking to amend the Charter through a people’s initiative.

Economic think tank IBON Foundation said Congress has yet to justify the need to amend the Constitution.

“There’s no justification towards the removal of economic provisions in the Constitution,” IBON Foundation executive director Jose Enrique A. Africa told a news briefing on Thursday.

“The insertion of “unless otherwise provided by law” [is an] attempt to minimize the obvious [desire of] opening of the economy,” he said.

Mr. Africa cited the manufacturing industry, which is 100% open to foreign investments, fell to 17.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), the smallest share in 75 years or since 16.3% in 1949.

He added that the Philippines’ foreign investment is higher compared to South Korea, China, and Taiwan during their respective economic takeoffs in the 1970s and 1980s, yet “they developed with relatively less foreign investment than the Philippines today.”

Instead opening the economy to foreign investments in manufacturing, the government should instead subsidize local industries, according to Mr. Africa.

House ways and means committee chairman and Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda said Congress can pass Charter change amendments before the 2025 midterm elections.

“It was explained to me by the proponents, they want to hit it before July [and conduct a] plebiscite [by then],” he told a news briefing.