CHANGING WORLD
(Conclusion)
Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas
It is easier said than done to first try to improve the ease of doing business as compared with our neighbors. There are some deeply ingrained cultural and political factors that militate against immediate success in these endeavours. That is why, any additional sweetener that can compensate for the difficulties of improving governance, combatting corruption, and electing more competent officials at the LGU level, should be provided. I maintain that allowing more foreign ownership in strategic industries is one such sweetener badly needed in this most crucial period of our struggle to catch up with our neighbors in becoming at least an upper-middle income economy within a decade or so. In fact, to provide a another sweetener, I would even go to the extent of allowing foreigners to own the land on which they build a factory, a residence or commercial facility. Although it is true that long-term leases are sufficient for many foreign investors in manufacturing and agribusiness, the foreign ownership of land can be a competitive advantage the Philippines can provide for some of them to compensate for our weaknesses in the ease of doing business and good governance compared with most of our peers in the East Asian region. The legislation on this will limit ownership of land to those foreign investors who contribute to the increase in the value of our real estate by actually constructing some physical structures on Philippine land. I think it is unfair to prevent foreigners from participating in the increase in the value of a piece of land resulting from their actually constructing on it. The legislation should definitely not allow an unlimited purchase of raw land for pure speculation. Foreigners can be motivated to take a long-term point of view about the Philippines if they have a stake in the ownership of land that will give them additional security and profit. It is understandable that a country like Singapore does not allow foreign ownership of land. First, they have very scarce land and second they have more than enough attractions in their investment climate like ease of doing business, good governance and a highly educated manpower base. For imperfect societies like ours, we have to think of additional “sweeteners.”
To summarise, it is wise for Congress to amend the Constitution by adding the phrase “unless otherwise specified by law” in order to give the Government enough flexibility to consider different circumstances prevailing at different stages of our road to economic development before formulating policies that should be time bound. As a member of the Philippine Constitution of 1986, I can attest to the fact that we did not stick to writing the fundamental law but, because of the emotional state in which most of us were, included in the Constitution so many minute details that are more appropriate as legislative measures. In some instances, especially in matter affecting the national economy, we wore the hat of legislators rather than drafters of the Constitution. It is about time we correct this unintended anomaly by introducing an amendment that gives the Philippine legislature the freedom to amend those time-bound laws that have been enshrined in the Philippine Constitution to the detriment of the common good of Filipinos now and in the future.
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