Jose Rene Almendras FILE PHOTO
Business organizations and opposition groups in the Philippines believe the country badly needs to grow the economy to create more jobs and improve people鈥檚 livelihood, but they disagree on whether this could be done through Charter change (Cha-cha).
The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) is supporting amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, seeing the merit in altering the decades-old provisions that it believes are hampering economic development.
READ:聽Cha-cha drive 鈥榯reacherous, divisive and unwise鈥� 鈥� Hontiveros
Jose Rene Almendras, president of the influential business group, said they believe these changes in the Constitution could make a difference in attracting more foreign investors to the Philippines.
鈥淭here are many things鈥攐wnerships, caps, limits, industry limitations鈥攖hat we need to open up because the other countries have them,鈥� Almendras told reporters on the sidelines of a MAP meeting in Taguig on Thursday.
FDI down 15.9 percent
Almendras, a member of the Cabinet of the late President Benigno Aquino III, emphasized the need for the Philippines to enhance its competitiveness in relation to other countries.
He said there is a lot of work to be done to improve the ease of doing business in the country. According to data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the net inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) to the Philippines amounted to $5.88 billion from January to September of last year鈥攁 15.93-percent decline from the same period in 2022.
The amount is also much smaller than other countries in the region had obtained, such as the $ 16.33 billion foreign investment to Indonesia and the $15.91 billion that entered Vietnam during the same period. In his speech during the meeting, Almendras said that MAP will push for vital policy reforms, through executive or legislative action, that would eliminate corruption, improve the ease of doing business, and ensure food security.
鈥淭he aspiration is to attract greater and more diverse job-creating investments for more Filipinos to be gainfully employed,鈥� he said.
1Sambayan, KMP
Opposition groups do not see Cha-cha as the step to be taken to improve the country鈥檚 economic performance.
Given rising inflation and the employment crisis, the latest attempt to amend the Constitution would not be an effective solution and can even be used as a 鈥渟mokescreen鈥� to push for 鈥減olitical agendas,鈥� according to opposition coalition 1Sambayan and the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
1Sambayan on Wednesday said that the government should instead focus on other 鈥渕ore serious, more pressing鈥� problems reflected in the recent Pulse Asia Survey, such as controlling inflation, wage increase, job creation and poverty reduction.
KMP also raised the same point, enumerating the daily economic challenges faced by the working class that it said won鈥檛 be solved by amending the Constitution.
鈥淐ha-cha is not what the masses need. It鈥檚 clear that the devised Cha-cha campaign will not benefit the farmers affected by the price drop of vegetables. The workers suffering from low wages and inflated price of goods will not gain anything from Cha-cha. Cha-cha is not the answer to the daily protests of PUJ (public utility jeepney) drivers that will lose their livelihood because of the colonial modernization and jeepney phaseout,鈥� said KMP chair Danilo Ramos.鈥淩ealistically, this is not the best time for Charter change,鈥� 1Sambayan said.
鈥楶olitical, not economic鈥�
1Sambayan suspects that the move to revise the Constitution is being pushed 鈥渋n the guise of proposing economic provisions鈥� but is meant to make political changes, such as 鈥渄iluting the vote of the Senate and concentrating the power in the House of Representatives.鈥�
It was referring to the provision under the Constitution that states that amendments can be made by Congress acting as a constituent assembly.
A people鈥檚 initiative seeking is being vigorously pushed by members of the House of Representatives to make future revisions in the Charter through a 鈥渏oint鈥� vote by two-thirds of all the members of Congress. If it passes, the more than 300 congressmen can easily overwhelm the 24 senators in any voting.
鈥淐learly, the actual provisions being propounded in this people鈥檚 initiative are political rather than economic. Worse, this is perpetrated by Congress itself,鈥� 1Sambayan said. 鈥淚nstead of a people鈥檚 initiative, this move is tantamount to a congressional initiative, which is not provided in the Constitution.鈥� KMP also suspects that the amendments can be used to sneak in the 100 percent foreign ownership of lands and the extension of the term of the President.