'Cha-cha not ready for prime time'

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino reiterated yesterday that amending the Constitution was not among the priorities of his administration.

Aquino said any move to amend the Constitution “is not yet prime time” even if there are mounting calls to change the economic provisions of the Charter.

“We just tackled that on a peripheral basis, on the slight discussions on the economic provisions in the Constitution. That is not yet ready for primetime, we still have to discuss the particular details,” Aquino told reporters in a press briefing after the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting at Malacañang.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte attended the LEDAC meeting yesterday with Aquino to map out the legislative agenda of the administration.

Enrile and Belmonte earlier discussed how the Senate and the House of Representatives could come up with a harmonized approach to introducing amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution.

Belmonte said Enrile shared the view that voting on the measure to introduce amendments to the Constitution should be done separately by the two legislative chambers.

Charter change advocates led by Misamis Occidental Rep. Loreto Leo Ocampos, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments, said the Philippines could easily triple the inflow of foreign direct investment to at least $8 billion annually in just a few years by doing away with the restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution.

Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan, however, warned lifting the restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution would not necessarily lead to economic growth.

“Let us not be fooled by Cha-cha’s promise of investments. Our experience shows that foreign direct investments have not resulted in employment, poverty alleviation and economic growth,” Ilagan said.

She said that while direct investments grew by an average of 7.8 percent from 2004 to 2009 “this increase in investments did not translate to economic growth nor did this trickle down to the majority of our population.”

“It would be foolish to think that amending the economic provisions of our Constitution to bring in more foreign investors would be a panacea to our ailing economy. Instead, let us pour our efforts towards strengthening support for agriculture and building local industries,” she said.

House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales said the House committee led by Ocampos would focus only on the economic provisions of the Constitution.

Gonzales said the House would likely propose the amendments through simple legislation.

Ocampos said the committee is set to resume hearings next week on the various proposals, particularly on relaxing the restrictions on foreign ownership of business in the Philippines.

He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have pointed out the need for the Philippines to raise its investment rate for its growth to be sustainable.

Ang Kasangga sa Kaunlaran party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco, vice chairman of the House committee on small business and entrepreneurship development, said many sectors are in favor of reforming the economic provisions of the Constitution.

Haresco claimed as much $50 billion in investments could easily could come in if the constitutional provisions on foreign ownership are lifted.

Haresco argued the world economy is practically borderless and that a restrictive Constitution would block foreign investments and divert them to more receptive economies. “Global giants have many choices for their investments and restrictive national laws would spell economic stagnation for us,” he said.

Haresco said the success of the Aquino administration’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) program hinges on reforms in the Constitution.