Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is elated over the snowballing of support for economic Charter change (Cha-cha) among members of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s Cabinet. On Wednesday, March 29, Rodriguez welcomed Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin Diokno as the latter member of this growing club. “We are heartened by Secretary Diokno’s supportive statement. He is an influential voice in the administration and in the business community,” Rodriguez, chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said. “We are encouraged by the statements/position papers of members of the President’s economic team and of the Cabinet who share our desire and goal for the country to attract more foreign investments through economic reform in the Constitution,” said the solon from Mindanao. He also cited the position papers presented to his committee by Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Alfredo Balisacan, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian, and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo. The five departments were among the agencies officially requested by the Rodriguez committee to present their positions on Charter Change in recent public hearings held at the House of Representatives. Last March 6, the House overwhelmingly approved on third and final reading Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6. The measure calls for the creation of the constitutional convention (con-con), the proposed 314 delegates of which would be tasked to propose changes to the existing Charter. Con-con proponents in the House have long been saying that the Cha-cha move will focus on lifting the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution. This will pave the way for more foreign direct investments (FDIs) to the Philippines, they said.

What did they say?

Rodriguez gave a quick summary of the favorable statements made by the agencies on Cha-cha. The DTI headed by Pascual said recently-enacted laws provide some space for liberalization in certain sectors of the economy such as foreign investment, retail trade and telecommunications. “However, we still note that several foreign equity restrictions are still enshrined in the Constitution, rather in an investment law or sectoral legislation, which actually makes economic reform more challenging…I think we’re the only two countries (the other is Myanmar) that have economic restrictions, foreign (investment) limitations that are enshrined in the Constitution,” he said. Basilican said: “NEDA would be open to revisiting or amending the restrictive economic provisions…in line with, of course, the goal of propelling our growth, projecting our global position upward.” The DILG headed by Abalos told the Rodriguez committee that his department has written its Core Constitutional Reform Handbook, which advocates Charter amendments, including “liberalizing citizenship-based restrictions on foreign direct investment". The DSWD led by Gatchalian stated: “We believe that amending the Constitution is timely and necessary, particularly the economic provisions that are already outdated and are no longer in the context of the present economic situation.” The position paper of the DFA headed by Manalo as presented during the hearing stated: “A lot of foreigners want to retire in our country, but they want to own their retirement home. They end up, more often than not, marrying a Filipina, as a workaround. They want to own an investment, it’s very difficult for them.”