House will not allow political amendments in ‘Cha-cha’
THE SPONSOR of economic Charter change (“Cha-cha”) in the House of Representatives told the plenary on Tuesday that no political amendments will be sneaked into the measure aimed only at opening the economy to foreign investors to generate up to 130,000 jobs annually and boost energy production, among other public service improvements.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez, who sponsored the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7, said the proposed amendments to the Charter will only contain economic provisions and that no other articles of the 1987 Constitution will not be changed.
“The four corners of our resolution in the Committee Report 985 is definite, specific, and clear,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “Only three economic amendments, it will never happen that there will be any political amendments (inserted to RBH No. 7).”
He added that the phrase “unless otherwise stated by law” will only be added to Articles 12, 14, and 16 of the Charter — sections that limit the participation of foreign investors in public utilities, educational institutions, and the advertising industry.
The addition of the said phrase to Articles 12, 14, and 16 will allow Congress to have the needed “flexibility unlike what we have in the Constitution right now.”
Mr. Rodriguez, who also chairs the House constitutional amendments, said opening the economy to foreign investors will allow the generation of 40,000 to 130,000 jobs annually, citing a report from the National Economic Development Authority.
If passed by both chambers of Congress, Mr. Rodriguez also sees it possible that the entry of foreign investment “will be able to lower electricity costs.”
He also said that liberalizing the domestic economy does not necessarily mean that foreign investors will now have total control of the industries they are involved in.
“Congress will now determine what will be the percentages in the opening up of our public utilities,” he said. “However, this will be lodged in Congress to decide what the safeguards are, what the investment ratio, and standards to protect national security [are].”
Mr. Rodgriguez also asserted that there will be no bicameral conference if economic “Cha-cha” by both chambers of Congress generates “¾ votes in the Senate and ¾ votes in the House.”
“If the senate secures ¾ vote approving RBH No. 6 in the Senate, and we at the House of Representatives will approve with ¾ vote RBH No. 7, then there is a meeting of the minds of the two Chambers,” he said. “Therefore, this will be transmitted to the Comelec for a plebiscite to be conducted (within) 60 days upon commission (extending) up to 90 days.”
The government is expected to spend around P12 to P28 billion to hold the “Cha-cha” plebiscite. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio