ONE of the most welcome pieces of news that circulated late last week is that of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. calling on his colleagues in the House of Representatives to fast-track deliberations on amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution. We thought the good Speaker has forgotten all about such amendments given Malacañang’s expression of lack of interest in them. But the Speaker is obviously unimpressed by the Palace’s stance. And for good reason. If we do not remove these restrictive provisions, we might, as well, dissipate any notion of development for our country’s economy.
Consider the data shown below.
Foreign Direct Investment, 2013 (million dollars)
Brunei 908.4 Myanmar 2,620.9
Cambodia 1,274.9 Philippines 3,859.8
Indonesia 18,443.8 Singapore 60,644.9
Lao PDR 426.7 Thailand 12,999.8
Malaysia 12,297.4 Vietnam 8,900.0
Of the five original members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)—not counting Brunei Darussalam, which does not need foreign direct investment (FDI)—the Philippines received the smallest amount of FDI. The Philippines is superior only to newcomers Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar in receipts of FDI. At the rate we are going, we shall even fall behind these countries in another four or five years in attracting FDI.
Talk about employment creation, poverty eradication, or improvement in standards of living, these will not come about without investment, including foreign investment.
Perhaps, it is understandable why these restrictions were laid down in the Constitution when they were. In the 1980s the flames of nationalism were still raging, stoked by the idea that the country remained an object of economic exploitation despite years of political independence.
The thoughts undergirding that idea have now been shown to be false: There is not all that much foreign capital available for mobilization to begin with, and it is not anywhere near to jumping on us to exploit us the moment we allow its entry into our economy; and if we push away any prospective foreign investment, it is just, as well, for our neighbors, who are falling over themselves to attract foreign investment with all kinds of incentives.
As reported, Belmonte said that the resolution on amendments should be passed this year so a plebiscite for Charter change could be incorporated in the 2016 national and local elections. The resolution will be sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Ralph Recto. The amendments will be approved by both chambers of Congress voting separately, with a three-fourths vote required from each of them.
If the envisioned amendments are passed by Congress and approved by the people in a plebiscite, we have no doubt in our mind that FDI to the Philippines will increase four- or fivefold in a few years after approval. This should give a tremendous boost to the development of our economy.
We give our unqualified support to this effort of Belmonte to get the economic provisions of our Constitution amended.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano
1 comment
Remove the socialist provisions in the Constitution and the country will soar like never before.