ECONOMIC CHA-CHA | Congress eyes ‘revisiting’ economic charter change talks

December 12, 2023 , 05:49 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(December 12, 2023) – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s allies in the lower House on Tuesday said they are planning to “revisit” proposals to amend economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution after moves to alter the charter were stalled in the Senate.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin, said his colleagues would like to use the Christmas break from December 16 until January 21 to look at the procedures for changing the Constitution when Congress resumes session next year.

Romualdez said there is an urgent need to make the decades-old Constitution “more attuned, sensitive and responsive to the times.”

“I believe 2024 will allow us again to revisit the issue of the Constitution because I think it’s timely that we visit,” Romualdez said.

“We’d like to focus very much on the economic provisions. But even to get there, we have to look at the procedural aspects of the amendment of the Constitution, so we have to tackle that. And of course, to ensure the economic provisions are backed up.”

Muling bubuksan sa Kamara sa susunod na taon ang usapin patungkol sa Charter Change o pagreporma sa kontitusyon, ayon kay House Speaker Martin Romualdez. Aniya, nais ng Mababang Kapulungan na magpokus sa economic provisions. #News5 pic.twitter.com/oGuig46rd5

— News5 (@News5PH) December 12, 2023

The Lower House approved a proposed resolution of both houses seeking a constitutional convention to amend the Constitution last February, citing a need to make the charter “attuned with the changing times.”

Proposals in both chambers of Congress to amend the 1987 Constitution’s economic provisions largely focus on loosening provisions that limit foreign ownership in certain industries.

Economists have been divided with proposals to relax the protectionist clauses in the Constitution, as they disagreed over whether luring foreign investment in more industries was needed to promote economic growth in the country.

Lawmakers passed an implementing bill for the proposed charter change on third and final reading a month later, and while the resolution was still pending in the Senate.

But support for charter change was more lukewarm in the Upper House, where some senators, including key administration allies, opposed the proposal.

Proponents in the Senate have also disagreed with the Lower House on how to proceed with a charter change, instead preferring a constituent assembly convened by members of Congress, as opposed to a constitutional convention called by elected delegates.

Supporters of a constitutional convention believe it to be less prone to abuse than a constituent assembly, but it is more costly to convene. The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) estimated its costs of holding elections for the constitutional convention at as high as P28 billion, which can still be reduced to P331 million if held with another election.

Last May, Senator Robin Padilla, a staunch supporter of charter change in the Upper House, said charter change proposals have become “dead” in the water due to an apparent political drama in the Lower House.

(MM)

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