House revives Cha-cha hearings

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on constitutional amendments resumed yesterday public hearings on proposals to amend the 1987 Constitution following favorable signals from the Aquino administration.

Misamis Occidental Rep. Loreto Leo Ocampos, chairman of the panel, clarified the committee will focus only on bills calling for amendments to the economic provisions, following the lead of the House and Senate leadership.

The last time the committee held hearings on Charter change was in May.

“We will focus only on the economic provisions, not the political aspect of the Constitution, because it’s the economic provisions that have direct impact on the Filipino people,” Ocampos said.

“All our economic policies should not be in the Constitution because changing them is difficult. They should be dynamic and refinements should be just a subject of legislation,” he said.

He said amending the economic provisions would be easier than changing the political provisions “because this is where all the apprehensions set in.”

“People always associate Charter change with term extension, that’s why we will not touch on it for now,” he said.

He said the hearings would likely be faster this time due to the public pronouncements of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile supporting Charter change.

He said the common thread of various measures filed in the House seeking constitutional amendment, including the one filed by former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was the opening up of certain sectors of the economy to direct foreign investments and foreign ownership.

Ocampos said the development of the country’s natural resources and operation of public utilities should not be confined to Filipinos since foreign entities have also proven to be capable of developing them.

“We are lagging behind our Asian neighbors that’s why we need to focus now on the economy,” he said.

Ocampos said he is hopeful the House and the Senate can pass a resolution calling for reforms in the economic provisions in the Constitution, which will be approved by the people in a plebiscite.