House moves one step closer to economic Cha-cha

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on constitutional amendments approved yesterday a resolution seeking to ease the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution.

The approval paves the way for plenary debates on the measure.

The panel, chaired by Davao City Rep. Mylene Garcia-Albano, voted 24-2 with one abstention to approve Resolution of Both Houses No. 1 which seeks to amend Articles XII (national economy and patrimony), XIV (education, science and technology, arts, culture and sports) and XVI (general provisions).

The measured filed by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. seeks to include the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law” to certain sections to allow Congress in the future to ease restrictions on foreign ownership in certain industries to attract investments and generate jobs.

The approval came after four public hearings on RBH 1 where various legal experts as well as local and foreign business leaders gave their views on the resolution.

“I think once and for all, we must find out if there’s really a consensus among us whether we want amendments in the economic provisions of the Constitution. After all, it will be the Filipino people who will decide if they want this or not,” Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong said in moving to put RBH 1 to a vote.

He described the measure as a brilliant move to help the country attain inclusive growth.

The motion was seconded by Reps. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro), Elpidio Barzaga (Dasmariñas City), Rodolfo Fariñas (Ilocos Norte) and Henry Oaminal (Misamis Occidental), who are also among the co-authors of the resolution.

Reps. Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate of the Bayan Muna party-list group tried to block its passage while Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez abstained from voting.

Once the resolution is approved in the plenary, it will be transmitted to the Senate for deliberations.

If approved in both Houses, the measure will be subjected to a nationwide referendum.

Belmonte welcomed the approval of the resolution and stressed that even if the measure is eventually passed in Congress, economic restrictions in the Constitution would remain unless a law is passed changing it.

He said he hopes to convince President Aquino to support the measure even as he vowed to block any move to touch political provisions of the Constitution.

“He’s not supportive of it at the moment, because I suspect that it may be because he thinks that people are harboring bigger changes – more particularly, as I said, to the term limits and to the political structure and so forth,” Belmonte told reporters.

“But he’ll see this is just a simple change, it really doesn’t have any effect. The door is still locked. We just provided for a legal key in case of need,” he said.