Bill allowing foreign ownership of public services gets final Senate nod
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Wednesday approved on final reading a bill that would amend the Public Services Act to allow full foreign ownership of firms in key industries such as telecommunications and transport.
Voting 19-3-0, the chamber voted to pass Senate Bill No. 2094 which was co-sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sens. Grace Poe. Drilon is also the bill's principal author.
Under the 1987 Constitution, public utilities should be 60% Filipino-owned. The bill seeks to amend the law to make a distinction between public utilities and public services, freeing up the latter for full foreign ownership.
If the bill is enacted, foreigners will be allowed to own 100% of airlines, railways and subways, shipping firms, and telcos.
"The main purpose of this measure is to provide consumers with choices and I believe that, by opening our economy to a diverse set of investors, we could provide our fellow Filipinos with more and better choices," Poe said on the Senate floor.
"We have amended a law that dates back to the commonwealth era," she added. "Future generations of Filipinos will truly benefit from what we have started in our chamber today."
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and minority Sens. Risa Hontiveros and Francis Pangilinan voted against the measure.
Sen. Imee Marcos voted in favor but said she had "serious reservations" that she would submit to the chamber's secretariat.
Hontiveros opposes opening telco industry to full foreign ownership
"I am saddened that many other critical services have been opened up to 100% foreign ownership by our bill," Sen. Risa Hontiveros said in a speech explaining her "no" vote on the bill.
"[A]s Sen. Recto repeatedly proposed, we could have limited foreign participation say to 70%, which allows Filipinos and even the state to have direct knowledge of what goes on inside these critical facilities."
She opposed, in particular, opening up the telecommunication industry to 100% foreign ownership "at a time when we have tech-savvy neighbors as well as rogue non-state elements that are directly targeting facilities in the region."
Hontiveros said these supposed targeted facilities include "government and military installations and other very critical infrastructure."
Poe in her own speech earlier emphasized that national security was taken into consideration in the crafting of our bill, with certain industries, including telecommunications, recognized as "critical infrastructure" subjected to "several layers of safeguards."
But Hontiveros argued that the Philippines lacks cyber-defense capability.
READ: 35% of cybersecurity tech in Philippines firms outdated – study
"National Security Advisor [Hermogenes] Esperon admitted this to the Senate during a hearing exactly a year ago," she said, likely referring to Esperon telling senators during a hearing that there is no operations center for cybersecurity in the Philippines.
"By allowing 100% foreign ownership we are opening our phones, and all our internet-connected devices, appliances and critical public facilities to foreign state and non-state interests that may have malevolent designs on our national security," Hontiveros said.
"The face of conflict and warfare has been irreversibly altered...and I fear that we have just brought our guards down." — Bella Perez-Rubio
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