Business leaders back Cha-cha; Rody creates panel

MANILA, Philippines - Business heavyweights have revived calls for amending the Constitution to make the country more attractive to foreign investors.

At yesterday’s Pilipinas Conference organized by Stratbase ADR institute, Ayala Corp. chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, ports tycoon Enrique Razon and RFM president and CEO Jose Concepcion III expressed support for efforts to amend the Constitution, especially its economic provisions.

This developed as President Duterte signed Executive Order No.10 creating a 25-member body that would study proposals to amend the 1987 Constitution.

“There is a need to review the 1987 Philippine Constitution to ensure that it is truly reflective of the needs, ideals and aspirations of the Filipino people and to ensure that the mandate of the people as expressed thereon, is responsive to changing times,” Duterte said in the order.

A Charter change is also seen to set the stage for federalism as espoused by Duterte.

Zobel said liberalizing the economy can boost foreign direct investments in the Philippines, which are very low compared to those in neighboring Southeast Asian countries.

“We should do what is good for the country and I think an open environment for investment is good for the country and I think there are limitations in our Constitution that make foreign investments uncomfortable. We should release those clauses and allow those people to come in and invest,” Zobel said.

“I think the economic provisions should be opened up,” added the head of the country’s oldest conglomerate.

The country’s 1987 Constitution restricts foreign ownership of property to 40 percent (Article XII), a clause often blamed by businessmen for the lack of foreign investments in the country.

“What’s so great about the Constitution anyway? I think we should change it all the time, change it every five years or change it every three years. It’s a piece of paper and what’s the use of it if you don’t follow the laws. We should change it every five years. It’s just a document,” Razon said.

“What is good for the country is to open up for investments. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for me as a businessman but it’s good for the country. It’s good for everybody,” Razon, chairman of the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), said. He also chairs Bloomberry Resorts Corp., operator of Solaire Resorts & Casino.

Concepcion agreed there is need for changes in the Charter but that any change should be done carefully.

“We have to start to understand the pros and manage the change. This has to be managed really well,” he said.

In the forum, the businessmen said the government should make sure any deals it forges would benefit the Philippines. “It’s important to keep in mind what’s good for us,” said Razon.

He also said corporations should keep track of global trends that could affect businesses. These include rapid advancement in technology.

For Concepcion, there is also need for the government to strengthen the educational system to prepare the youth for emerging global trends that could affect the corporate world.

EO on Cha-cha

Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea told the Senate committee on constitutional amendments chaired by Sen. Franklin Drilon of the issuance last Tuesday of an EO creating a “committee for consultative study of the Constitution.

Medialdea also said Duterte’s preferred mode of changing the Constitution is through constituent assembly (Con-ass), citing cost efficiency.

Duterte originally preferred to review the 1987 Constitution through a constitutional convention, whose delegates would be chosen through election, but House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said in a previous interview that the President eventually settled for Con-ass after learning that a constitutional convention would cost P7 billion.

Some critics, however, said having a con-ass might tempt sitting lawmakers into inserting provisions that would advance their vested interests.

Drilon said most senators appear to be convinced of the need for Charter change and that debates are focused on which path to take to achieve such goal.

“There appears to be a consensus that our Constitution needs to be reviewed. That’s number one. Number two, the resource persons are divided as to whether or not it should be through a constitutional convention or a constituent assembly,” Drilon said after the hearing yesterday.

On the con-ass proposal, Drilon said senators were of the opinion that the Senate and the House of Representatives should vote separately on whatever amendments to the Constitution are introduced.

Medialdea reiterated the President’s position that cost considerations, credibility and effectiveness were generally his basis for favoring con-ass.

“And to the matter of voting, we confirm that during that meeting he (President) believes that both Houses should vote separately but we would require further legal study to determine the intent of the framers of the Constitution,” he said.

He also said that based on EO 10, the consultative committee tasked to study Charter change would be given six months to present its findings.

At yesterday’s Senate hearing, retired Supreme Court Justice Vicente Mendoza said that under a constitutional convention, Congress should still determine the agenda to be taken up.

“Whether the Con-con will adhere to the agenda is of very little concern. The point is there should be a focus for the work of the Con-con, otherwise we would have the spectacle of a runaway constitutional amendment. Considering the time and the expense involved in calling a Con-con, the danger of a runaway Con-con or you may call it free-for-all is a danger that should always be guarded against,” Mendoza said.

Federalism or bust

In a related development, Duterte warned that failure to implement federalism would make lasting peace in Mindanao impossible.

“If federalism is not implemented in Mindanao, we will lose it,” he said during the 7th anniversary of the Federalismo Alyansa ng Bicol yesterday in Albay.

“I don’t know how much blood will be shed but magulo yan (it will be chaotic),” he added.

“Either we lose the island or to maintain the sovereignty, quote and unquote, we have to invest more money for more lives, bullets and all.”

Duterte said the unitary form of government was introduced by the country’s colonizers and has resulted in the concentration of power in Manila.

“So you have one throne there and that is why Manila continues to lord it over us,” he said.

But at the Senate hearing, Mendoza warned of the dangers that this would bring to the country, particularly on the way the administration wants to go about it.

He noted that the usual way is for independent states or territories and colonies to come together and form a federal system but in the proposal of the administration, it goes the opposite direction.

“We are already one nation. When you convert the several administrative regions we have into states, the effect is to divide this nation. For a unitary system or a nation like the Philippines to divide itself into several states independent of the national government is, if I may say so, courting disintegration and fragmentation for what was once a nation,” Mendoza said.

“So the danger of division is a very real one. Should that experiment fail, should the federation formed that way disintegrate, the several parts will find themselves without moorings and will be easy prey to annexation by other states,” he added.

He said federalism would only intensify regional differences or create one where there is none. – Alexis Romero, Marvin Sy