Welcoming

Constitutional reform, it appears, is on the agenda again.

Last week, deliberations began at the House of Representatives over proposals to change the basic law of the land. The same proposals repeated over the past three decades were made: remove the restrictions in foreign investments, shift to federalism, adopt a parliamentary system of government and lift term limits.

On the other side of the aisle, the same objections were raised. Constitutional changes were not needed. This was not the time to dabble with the constitutional order. The politicians simply want to get rid of term limits.

We know the arguments on either side quite well by now. This is the third or fourth serious effort to undertake constitutional reform. The 1987 Constitution, it seems, was written in a way to make reforming it a challenging task.

There is one distinct element that is new, however. House Speaker Martin Romualdez has both the numbers and the political skills to gain some headway against the conservatives. The Senate appears to be open to the idea of constitutional reform.

Rep. Benny Abante, in a recent interview, said it was better to begin the process of constitutional change early in the new presidential term so that it will not be clouded with the partisan posturing that happens close to each electoral cycle. That is a good point – except that he accorded the lifting of term limits the same importance as reforming the economic orthodoxy enshrined in the 1987 document. This is an invitation to partisan positioning even this early in the presidential term.

I was involved in the effort to introduce constitutional reforms late in the Ramos administration. I supported the effort to surgically remove the restrictive economic provisions during the Estrada administration. I sat as commissioner in the 2005 Consultative Commission on Charter Change.

From my involvement in these previous efforts, I understood that the task of making our constitutional framework more welcoming to the participation of foreign investments was the most urgent. Opportunities pass us each day while we cling to some 19th century economic nationalist orthodoxy against the reality of contemporary investment flows.

For instance, even as the internet removed all political boundaries to the flow of information, investment restrictions caused us to miss all opportunities to be a major content provider to the world. The requirement that all media be Filipino owned invited needless controversy over Philippine Depositary Receipts and the flow of investments to boost our technical capacity for content creation.

Recently, applying obsolete constitutional doctrine, our Supreme Court narrowed the possibility for joint ventures in exploiting whatever natural wealth lies beneath the South China Sea. The same nationalist provisions prevent us from rapidly capitalizing our agricultural sector to deliver food security for our people.

In his “soft launch” of the Makarlika Investment Fund (MIF) in Davos, President Marcos Jr. invited investors to participate in a fund that will modernize the backward sectors of our economy. This could run into issues involving the negative list on investments prescribed by the 1987 Charter.

Never mind term limits and federalism. It is the restrictive economic provisions that is truly preventing us from achieving a prosperous future for our people.

Incapacitated

Garbage is piling up along the streets of Parañaque. This happens because of the decision of the city mayor to award the garbage collection contract to a company that did not have the capacity to do the job despite the plump contract it won.

Last Dec. 27, while everyone was distracted by the holidays, Mayor Eric Olivarez transferred the garbage collection contract from the contractor of long-standing, Leonel Waste Management Corp., to an untried contractor, Metrowaste Solid Waste Management Corp. The size of the contract was increased to a whopping P414 million even as the new contractor did not have the equipment required to get the job done.

The contract was concluded without consulting the city council. For this reason, an inquiry has begun at the council, pitting the mayor against his own vice mayor, the city councilors and nearly all the baranggay chairmen. Those opposing the contract claim the mayor violated the Local Government Code.

According to the vice mayor, the former contractor completed 39,731 garbage collection trips from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2022. The new contractor, Metrowaste, completed only 765 such trips from Jan. 1 to 18 this year.

The former contractor last year collected a daily average of 2,581 cubic meters of trash. By contrast, Metrowaste had a daily average collection of only 1,328 cubic meters of trash during the first three weeks of January. This is because Metrowaste has only 24 trucks, including 20 small ones with compactors to fulfill its contractual obligations. This is certainly not enough for the city’s needs.

To compound things, the former contractor owned a sanitary landfill in Rizal province. The new contractor is still searching for a landfill that will accept Parañaque’s waste.

Parañaque is not a small city. It has a land area of 46.57 square kilometers and a population of 689,992 at the last census. This translates into a volume of trash that far exceeds the new contractor’s capacity.

It is not easy to solve the new contractor’s deficiency in equipment and lack of a sanitary landfill. Resolving these deficiencies could take months. In the meantime, trash will continue to pile up and the citizens will get increasingly agitated.

The garbage crisis will quickly translate into a political crisis for the beleaguered mayor.