They wanted reforms then, but not today

Economic reforms in the Constitution are urgent. Only the callous would say that the poor – one of every three of 80 million Filipinos – can wait a while longer. Only the pitiless would delay relief for the 2.54 million out of 16 million families who subsist on only P50 or so a day.

Leaders have been saying so for years. During the Estrada tenure, a review of the 1987 Charter showed that jobs are scarce because so-called "nationalist" provisions scare off foreign investors. Studies by a Preparatory Commission on Constitutional Reforms, led by retired Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, saw no remedy in Filipino capital. The national savings rate is but 18 percent of GDP – half of the 35 percent needed to spur local investing. The PCCR thus recommended the deletion of restrictions against foreign capital in mining, public utilities, industrial land, media, and advertising. Its aim was deemed patriotic: to create jobs and stable incomes that would lift Filipinos from poverty.

The Estrada team lost no time in forging a movement called Concord (Constitutional Correction for Reform and Development). Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, then executive secretary, was tasked to head a task force to market the proposed Charter amendments. Rep. Francis Escudero, then with the ruling coalition, too was tapped to lead the Congress "Bright Boys" who would amend the Constitution by constituent assembly. With him, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reported in 1999, were Reps. Edmundo Reyes Jr., Alan Peter Cayetano, and Rodolfo Albano III. Their aim was economic salvation.

Sen. Mar Roxas, then the House Majority Leader, promoted corollary constitutional reforms as well. Said he in a speech before the Asia Society in 1999: "The building of political and social institutions is as important as undertaking economic reforms. We are therefore pushing ahead with more political, judicial and social reforms. In this connection, President Estrada has called for amendments to the Constitution that, among others, would strengthen transparency and accountability. He has also called for a review of the judiciary, in particular the scope of jurisdiction of local judges in the issuance of restraining orders."

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, then the Senate President, was not to be left behind. He had founded the PDP-Laban party in 1982 to push for genuine local autonomy through federalism. In the Concord push of 1999 he saw a chance to wave the cause harder. Speaking then before an international conference on multiculturalism in Makati City, he lamented that only regions close to the central authority in Manila were progressing, while those in faraway Mindanao were retreating.

Today Zamora, Escudero, Roxas and Pimentel are with the Opposition. More than that, they are now against Charter change.

It’s apparently for partisan reasons. President Gloria Arroyo had set up in September a Consultative Commission on Constitutional Amendment, akin to Estrada’s PCCR. The four called it wrong. Arroyo then formed a Charter Change Advocacy Commission, similar to Estrada’s Concord. Again the quartet complained. Both the Con-Com recommended and the Ad-Com is pushing the same reforms as PCCR and Concord: economic liberalization, parliamentary form to sustain the economic gains sans political gridlock, and full local autonomy through federal structure. Zamora, Escudero, Roxas and Pimentel say it is untimely.

When else would it be fitting to free the poor from bondage? After Arroyo is removed, they say. But why does the suffering have to go on till they depose the President? Don’t they have the chance to impeach her once a year, and to hoot her down the other 364 days, without having to block reforms?

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Meanwhile, leaders of the Makati Business Club have declared that Charter change would harm business. But that is not what members say.

MBC members were surveyed last Jan. about Charter amendments. Result: 52 percent in favor, 31 percent against, and 17 percent undecided.

Over 85 percent of the respondents hold top management positions; only 12 percent were middle managers. By nationality, over 86 percent of respondents are Filipinos. By company size, nearly a third of responding firms have annual revenues of P1 billion or more, 20 percent earn P500 million to P999 million, 12 percent earn P300 million to P499 million, 16 percent earn P100 million to P299 million, and 13 percent earn less than P100 million.

So there.

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