Guingona urges youth to protect national patrimony

Vice President Teofisto Guingona has urged the youth to oppose moves to amend the Constitution and open ownership of the country’s natural resources to foreigners.

"Stand up against the attempts to open up our land, mineral and marine resources for foreigners and rich multinational corporations can come in and exploit our national patrimony," Guingona told participants of a summer youth camp in Malaybalay, Bukidnon yesterday.

"Because you, our youth, are idealistic and visionary, you have the power and the potential to build the future not only of your family but also of the community and the nation."

Some Charter change proponents say Article 12 of the Constitution, which reserves ownership of the country’s natural resources to Filipinos, hinders development and should therefore be amended or abolished. Foreigners are also barred from owning land.

If the country’s natural resources are opened to exploitation and ownership by foreigners and multinational firms, Guingona argued, Filipino farmers, fisherfolk, particularly the poor, who comprise 70 percent of the population, would be left with nothing.

Guingona evoked the memory of the late Edgar Jopson, a scion of a rich family who left the comfort of home and joined the communist rebellion to fight the Marcos dictatorship. He was killed in a clash with government troops in the 1980s.

"We do not need martial law or a great crisis for the youth to display courage and show their loyalty to their country," Guingona told camp participants.

"Today the issue is Charter change and the attempts to remove the protective mantle of the Constitution over our national patrimony."

Guingona had earlier denounced the alleged "insidious attempts to sell out our national patrimony to exploitative foreign interests through proposed amendments to the Constitution.

"Lawmakers should not lift the Constitution’s protective mantle over our national patrimony, which is the national inheritance of our children and our children’s children," he said.

Guingona dared his Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrat partymates to expel him as party president for opposing the party’s moves to amend the country’s Charter.

Top Lakas party leaders overwhelmingly voted last week to support the campaign to amend the Constitution.

Party national spokesman Heherson Alvarez said Guingona would not be expelled but presidential adviser on political affairs Jose Rufino urged Guingona to reconsider his stand and abide by the party’s stand.

Guingona said he was willing to discuss his position but stressed that he would not change his mind. "I will listen to them and I hope they also allow me to attempt to change their mind."

He refused to believe assurances by Charter change proponents that the Constitution’s economic provisions would not be touched and only the country’s current form of government would be changed.

"I will not be swayed, particularly as the proposal is for the parliament to be given the authority to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution which safeguard our national patrimony," Guingona said.

An opponent of Charter change, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said lawmakers do not have enough time to make amendments in the Constitution in time for next year’s elections in May.

"There are bills in the House that takes about six months to a year before it is ratified because it has to be studied thoroughly," Ocampo said.

The administrations of Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada pushed for amendments saying they were necessary to spur economic growth and make the country more competitive.

However, Charter change proposals were shelved because of strong public opposition, fueled by suspicion that politicians only want to remove limits on their terms so they can remain in office.

Term limits were put in place in the Constitution when it was rewritten in 1986 following the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos to prevent local officials from staying in power indefinitely and to prevent abuse.

In a 134-13 vote in March, the House of Representatives adopted Concurrent Resolution 16, which called for convening both chambers of Congress into a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution.

The resolution proposed a shift in the form of government from presidential to parliamentary with a unicameral legislature. A federal system would be adopted after a fixed 10-year transition period.

House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., who is spearheading the Charter change initiative, said changing the current form of government would remove gridlocks and speed up economic reforms and development. — With James Mananghaya