ECONOMIC CHA-CHA TO GIVE ‘CERTAINTY’ IN PH POLICY: ECON GROUP
Easing restrictions in the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution would provide “certainty” in terms of the country’s economic policy direction and help the country respond to global realities, a group of economists said.
In a statement, the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) said foreign investors have been discouraged in the Philippines due to the uncertainty in the country’s economic policy framework.
“The uncertainty in our economic policy framework stems from the contradiction between the restrictive provisions in our Constitution and the attempts to mitigate them through legislation,” FEF said.
“The uncertainty lies in the fact that enacted legislation that went through rigorous debate and deliberation by both houses of Congress, can be rendered moot through a Supreme Court challenge on the grounds of constitutionality. This is the situation that is faced by the amendments to the Public Service Act today,” the group added.
The Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 7 and its counterpart RBH6 in the Senate, FEF said, “will provide certainty to the country’s economic policy direction” by providing the leeway to enact laws that would respond to global and domestic realities.
Changes in the current economic rules may also improve the contestability in the current set-up, which is supposedly dominated by monopolies or duopolies.
“This means that actual competition or even the threat of competition from foreign players will lead local players to improve the quality of and access to their goods and services if they know that new entrants from abroad can be facilitated by Congress,” FEF said.
The statement was also a response to several points raised by the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics discussion paper that thumbed down the proposed economic charter change.
Among these was the paper’s position that there was no need to remove foreign equity restrictions.
FEF, however, said this was a “necessary condition.”
“We have to open the door first for investors to be able to come in. For foreign businesses to benefit from better institutions and processes, they must enter the country first,” the group said.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said he is primarily seeking to amend the charter’s economic provisions to allow more foreign investment, and ideally create more jobs.
He said the political aspects, including term limits, should be tackled later.
Critics warn the effort could lead to the abolition of term limits, with presidents currently allowed just one six-year stint in office. (ABS-CBN News)