Stop the dance for now

Some lawmakers being led by Senator Robinhood Padilla are hell-bent on rushing some changes to the Charter, also known as Cha-Cha, specifically for provisions that allow for more foreign investments and foreign ownership of certain industries.

Their actions have led other lawmakers as well as people from other sectors of society to question both the importance and the timing of such a move.

Why indeed?

According to Senate President Miguel Zubiri, the previous Congress already passed at least three laws that allow 100% foreign ownership of some business sectors. These should be implemented first before any move to make similar ones.

With all due respect to Senator Padilla, we doubt his grasp of how the Constitution works or what the country needs right now. We say this not because he is a neophyte senator, but because we believe he has yet to fully grasp his role not just as a lawmaker but also as chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments.

The cost of holding such a move must also be taken into consideration. Some lawmakers estimate that implementing Cha-Cha via a Constitutional Convention will cost the government ₱15 billion.

Where will they get the money for that? Moves for a Charter Change have not been included in the national budget. We also don’t have to mention that right now such an amount is better spent where it’s really needed: into relevant government projects or for the poor who actually deserve aid from the government.

This dance called Cha-Cha is not something that we urgently need right now, neither is such a move something that we can afford at the moment.

Senator Padilla should focus his attention on other issues. Considering he has expressed interest in various issues like same-sex unions, the traffic in Metro Manila, the return of Philippine history to the high school curriculum, and workers’ regularization sans civil service eligibility, he actually has a lot of other advocacies and causes to pursue.