Amendment of the economic provisions in the Constitution will put an end to “dummying” that many foreign corporations resort to in order to do business in the country.
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said the administration’s renewed push to amend the restrictive economic provisions of the charter is well justified based on what is happening on the ground.
Barzaga, chairman of the House Committee on Ecology, said there is logic in amending the economic provisions since many foreign corporations “have long been skirting the constitutional prohibition on ownership of lands and businesses.”
According to Barzaga some mass media companies are able to operate in the country "and they are just using dummies, in direct violation of our laws."
Barzaga aired his comments on the Charter change issue after the House leadership revived the bid to address the constitutional provisions that tend to slow down economic recover during the current pandemic.
The 1987 Constitution limits foreign ownership of land and businesses to only 40 percent and sets aside the other 60 percent exclusively for Filipino citizens or corporations, a provision which Barzaga pointed out is almost 100 years old since it was lifted from the 1935 Constitution.
The House committee on constitutional amendments last week started hearing Speaker Lord Allan Velasco's proposed Resolution of Both Houses No. 2, which seeks to liberalize these constitutional provisions which the Speaker said “prevent us from becoming fully competitive with our Asian neighbors.”
The measure seeks to amend Sections 2, 3, 7, 10 and 11 of Article XII (National Patrimony and Economy), Section 4 of Article XIV (Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture and Sports) and Section 11 of Article XVI (General Provisions) to add the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law.”
Barzaga said many foreign investors are being turned away by the prohibitive economic provisions of the Charter, depriving the country of the much-needed foreign direct investments (FDI).
In his province, he shared that some foreign corporations that are locators of the First Cavite Industrial Estate (FCIE) are complaining to him that they cannot even own lands where they are running their businesses.
The FCIE is a 159.5 hectare industrial subdivision built to service all basic needs of any manufacturing concern of the light-to-medium scale industry.