‘Cha-cha plebiscite can coincide with b’gay polls’
If the Senate and House of Representatives approve the resolution seeking to amend the economic provisions of the 36-year-old Constitution via constituent assembly in the coming weeks, a nationwide plebiscite to ratify the same may be held this October to coincide with the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, Sen. Robinhood Padilla said yesterday.
Padilla, who chairs the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, said there are two hurdles that must be overcome for the charter reforms to succeed: senators approving the resolution, and for the House to agree to amend the outdated Constitution through a constituent assembly.
“If the Senate and the House approve the resolution, and they also agree to a con-ass, we will now bring the issue directly to the people, hopefully in the October barangay elections. It will now be the people who will decide yes or no. We need to move fast. If the economic amendments are approved in October, they can take effect immediately and Congress can pass new measures to open our economy to investments,” Padilla told dzBB in Filipino.
He added that if the country is not facing economic difficulties, he would have preferred a con-con, referring to a constitutional convention.
“But now that we are surviving on borrowings, we must prioritize the economic provisions,” Padilla stressed.
A constituent assembly is composed of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives convened as one charter-amending body. Proposed resolutions in the Senate and House have the two chambers voting separately if the body is convened.
The House committee on constitutional amendments, chaired by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, approved a Charter change resolution convening a con-con as the proposed mode to amend the Constitution to include its political provisions.
Members or “delegates” to the con-con are elected based on congressional districts.
But Padilla said he recently met with Rodriguez and other House leaders to appeal to them to agree to a constituent assembly mode to only change the Constitution’s economic provisions, and was willing to plead with them again if needed.
He explained that the House’s preference for a constitutional convention meant Charter change would take years while requiring at least P11 billion in funding.
“I have humbled myself and gone to the Lower House and paid them my due respects. I have discussed this with them. And if need be, I will do it again,” Padilla said, adding that the need to address the economic problems of the country and help it progress through structural reforms is urgent.
House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan suggested that it might be best for the administration to first check the “cost-benefit” of the Houseapproved charter amendments via con-con.
“If we really want to tweak the economic provisions of the (1987) Constitution to draw in more foreign investors, then we would need a baseline comparison of cost and benefit. This is the most sensible approach – for us to ascertain whether the benefits outweigh the costs,” the leader of the 28-member House minority bloc in the chamber said, calling on the National Economic and Development Authority to make the necessary analysis.
Libanan said NEDA should submit to Congress a detailed report on the projected benefits in terms of foreign direct investments that would come in per industry, the number of new jobs that would be created, and the incremental tax revenues that would be generated.
At the same time, the 4Ps party-list congressman urged the Department of Budget and Management to come up with reliable estimates with regard to the “cost side” of the hybrid con-con equation, as stipulated in Resolution of Both Houses 6.
The opposition leader said the government’s budget and economic planners should perform a “cost-benefit analysis” of rewriting the 1987 Constitution “for the purpose of relaxing foreign investment restrictions.”
At present, the Constitution prohibits or restricts foreign ownership in various industries.
Foreigners, for instance, are barred from owning any equity in mass media, which is reserved only for Filipinos or entities that are 100 percent owned by Filipinos. Foreigners are also prevented from participating in the exploitation of the country’s marine resources in archipelagic waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone. They are likewise excluded from the small-scale utilization of natural resources in rivers, lakes, bays and lagoons.
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