Former Navotas City congressman turned Mayor Toby Tiangco said local chief executives are just too busy with dealing with the coronavirus pandemic to think about charter change, let alone promote it to their residents.

During the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday, February 3, Tiangco said local government units are primarily concerned with quelling the number of COVID-19 cases and ensuring residents are vaccinated against the disease. 

“Honestly, kung iaasa sa amin ‘yan, we don’t have time to talk about it or even think about it or to even read materials that they will send to us. I will be very honest: ‘Di kaya. Sa Navotas, hindi kaya. Ako bilang mayor, ‘di kayang isipin ‘yan sa panahon ngayon,” said Tiangco.

(Honestly, if they are going to rely on us to promote that, we don’t have time to talk about it or even think about it or to even read materials that they will send to us. I will be very honest: We can’t push for it. We can do that in Navotas. As mayor, I can’t even afford to think about that during this time.)

Only 3 progressive lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc voted against the House resolution that would lift the current constitutional restrictions on foreign investors.

Bayan Muna Representatives Carlos Zarate and Ferdinand Gaite, and ACT Teachers Representative France Castro were the 3 dissenters against Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 2 when it hurdled the House committee on constitutional amendments on Tuesday, February 2.

Sixty-four other members of the panel voted in favor of RBH 2.

Zarate warned Filipinos would be severely hit should more foreigners be allowed to own, manage, or lease alienable lands of public domain, natural resources, public utilities, educational institutions, mass media companies, and advertising companies in the Philippines.

“Our national patrimony would be put on sale to the highest foreign bidder at the further expense of our local industry,” said Zarate.

Castro also said charter change is not the answer to the country’s economic woes caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The pandemic response should not be dependent on changing the Constitution. This ‘Cha-Cha’ is not for the people,” she said.

A House committee’s approval of the economic charter change (Cha-Cha) resolution coincided with the 34th anniversary of the 1987 Constitution’s ratification.

The House committee on constitutional amendments passed Resolution of Both Houses No. 2 on Tuesday, February 2, which is also known as Constitution Day in the Philippines.

It was former president Corazon Aquino, through Proclamation No. 211 of 1988, who assigned February 2 of each year as Constitution Day to mark the new 1987 Constitution. Aquino was elected following the ouster of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

A House committee agreed to strike out from their charter change (Cha-Cha) resolution the proposed amendment that would have allowed foreigners to own land in the Philippines. 

On Tuesday, February 2, the House committee on constitutional amendments deleted this provision just before they approved Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 2, which is designed to allow Congress to tinker with the current restrictions on foreign investors by way of legislation.

The committee gave their nod to economic Cha-Cha on the same day the country commemorated the 34th anniversary of the 1987 Constitution’s ratification. 

Read more.

A House committee passed a resolution that would amend the 1987 Constitution’s economic provisions to open more Philippine sectors to foreign management and control. 

On Tuesday, February 2, a total of 62 members of the House committee on constitutional amendments voted in favor of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 2, penned by no less than Speaker Lord Allan Velasco himself. 

Only 3 voted against RBH 2, while 3 abstained from the vote.

Read more.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) welcomes moves to liberalize economic provisions in the Constitution, but believes the raging coronavirus pandemic is not the right time to pursue this. 

PCCI President Benedict Yujuico told the House committee on constitutional amendments on Tuesday, February 2, that Congress may not have enough time to properly deliberate on amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution since the government is still dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. 

“The issue boils down to the issue of time and of priority. Will Congress have enough time to deliberate on the amendment fully and wisely, given the present pandemic and the many measures to help us overcome the problems it has brought?” said Yujuico, who leads the country’s largest business group. 

The PCCI earlier issued a statement cautioning lawmakers against using charter change to relax economic restrictions amid the pandemic-induced recession.

1987 Constitution framer and former Supreme Court justice Adolfo Azcuna may be in favor of amending the economic provisions of the charter, but he disagreed with a lawmaker’s position that the House committee on constitutional amendments can already be considered as a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass.)

During a hearing on Tuesday, February 2, Agusan del Norte 1st District Representative Lawrence Fortun asked Azcuna if the House panel is already functioning as a Con-Ass.  Fortun’s question stems from House committee on constitutional amendments chairperson Alfredo Garbin Jr’s earlier insistence that his panel is already convened into a Con-Ass because they are exercising their power to propose amendments to the charter. But Azcuna disagreed with Garbin.

“The committee is, to my mind, taking preparatory steps for Congress to [convene into] a Constituent Assembly. But until the resolution is adopted, as I said, and passed by the necessary votes, then I believe that the act of converting yourself into a Constituent Assembly is not completed,” explained Azcuna, a member of the 1987 Constitutional Commission.