Economic Cha-cha gets final House OK this week

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is bent on approving this week, on third and final reading, the Charter change that lawmakers have crafted for purposes of relaxing restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.

“Under the original timeline set by our good Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, we hope to have final approval before our scheduled adjournment on Wednesday, barring any last-minute delay,” Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. said.

The congressman of Pampanga’s third district said Resolution of Both Houses 7 (RBH7) that they authored, which details the proposed economic amendments, “will be approved as is without amendment,” as per recommendation by the House committee of the whole led by the Speaker.

Gonzales, who now belongs to the ruling Lakas-CMD party, said those who still doubt that the House had planned to include political amendments in its push for economic Charter reforms “should now shed their baseless suspicions and their fear of the unknown.”

“Speaker Romualdez and the rest of us in the House have honored our word and followed the guidance of our President Marcos Jr: That we would work only on proposing economic amendments,” he said.

He said not one House member even tried to propose anything political in nature in the push for economic Charter reforms.

“We have proven the doubters wrong. No term extension proposal for any elective official. I hope they will now believe President BBM’s statement that his advocacy was confined only to changing the economic provisions,” Gonzales added.

Rep. LRay Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party – one of the biggest power blocs in the chamber – is hoping that the “investment plunge” in foreign direct investments for two years since the global pandemic in 2020 will be the senators’ “tipping point” in changing their anti-Cha-cha minds.

He said this should “somehow be the tipping point to convince senators that the Philippines will remain at the tail end of the region when it comes to investment generation, for so long as the restrictive economic provisions of the Charter stay – and continue to spook overseas investors.”

The Camarines Sur second district congressman noted that “for over a decade before the pandemic, the Philippines had struggled with anemic FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows despite its investment-grade ratings and enviable status as one of Asia’s economic stars.”

“Fast forward to the post-Covid period and our country, despite emerging as the fastest-growing economy in the region, remains stuck with scanty inbound investments when compared to those streaming to our neighbors,” Villafuerte said.