With charter change languishing in the Senate, majority of whom do not favor amending the charter because of political shift to unicameral legislature, hence senators would be losing their jobs and the scandalous cost of doing such changes via constitutional convention, the business community's withdrawal of support further dims the chances of chacha. becoming a reality.
With the withdrawal of the business community’s support for charter change—perhaps because they discern that economic provision changes have already been tackled by previous laws during the Duterte administration and that all that is left is political provision—chacha is now in limbo.
Last March 24, the local business groups asked the Senate to consider among others, the cost to be allocated for a constitutional convention to amend the charter with P14 billion that can be “better spent” on pro-people programs such as agriculture.
The Makati Business Club (MBC), Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex), Justice Reform Initiative, Filipina CEO Circle, Philippine Women’s Economic Network Inc., and Women Business Council Philippines, in a joint statement they listed the points that they think the Senate should consider as it deliberates on whether to support current House-led moves to amend the Constitution, in particular House Bill 7352 calling for concon to amend the 1987 charter.
They said the estimated financial cost might reach P14 to P28 billion—based on estimates of the National Economic and Development Authority-- could be better spent on pro-people programs.
This amount is based on the proposed 300 delegates to the concon who would be paid P10,000 a day or P3 million per or more than P400 million for seven months.
“We believe these funds can be better used on agriculture to address the high inflation, transportation to enable Filipinos to get to work and home in much less time, and needed social services like health, education, and social security,” the groups’ statement stressed.
With the low-end P14 billion, the government could double the spending on farm-to-market roads; increase by half the spending on irrigation or the national rice program; double the spending on school buildings; or almost double the spending on hospitals and health centers.
They said while they supported proposals to amend economic provisions of the Constitution that “impede” trade, investment, innovation, competition, and economic and job growth, they believe recently enacted reforms have addressed many of these “impediments,” such as the amendments to the Public Service Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, the Foreign Investment Act, the passage of the Rice Trade Liberalization Act, and the most recent one, the Department of Energy (DOE) circular allowing 100-percent foreign ownership in the renewable energy sector.
What investors need is “stability” in making investment decisions and taking the lengthy and fractious process of amending the Constitution would just make investors adopt a wait and see attitude for an extended period and therefore derail the impact of the reform.
The business groups said the Senate should also consider that Congress has yet to pass at least two more tax reform bills and other measures such as the “highly commendable/meritorious” Ease of Paying Taxes bill. They added these can “greatly enhance” government revenue and job creation at this critical time.
“We respectfully urge the Senate—and the House, if and when the deliberations progress—to consider these and other points raised by our colleagues in various sectors as you decide on this potentially disruptive proposal at a time when the country may be poised to regain its economic momentum,” the groups stated.
Although Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez repeatedly assure the people that only restrictive economic provisions would be changed, the people no longer believe this as many other lawmakers keep harping that no one could stop if people ask for removing the terms of office of elected officials that perpetuates dynasties.
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the committee on constitutional amendments, accused the business groups of flip flopping on chacha said the President’s efforts to attract foreign capital “are commendable but are still subject to the limitations of the Constitution, as are recent laws, including the amended Public Service Act.”
“These laws cannot amend the Charter. As for the cost involved, we are trying to keep them to the minimum,” he said.
In a position paper dated September 11, 2019, the Makati Business Club said it was reiterating its “long-running support” to lift investment restrictions in the Constitution.
“Among other means, we support adding the words ‘unless otherwise provided by law,’ following the constitutional provisions that set the limits on various sectors.
In a competitive global economy, we believe in lower barriers to trade and investment in general. In a dynamic global economy, we believe any barriers should be subject to modification by the President and Congress, better than being fixed in the Constitution,” the club said.