Charter change (Cha-cha) proponents have pointed to the 1987 Constitution's restrictive economic provisions in pursuing amendments but Sen. Grace Poe said that the country has always been open to foreign investors.

During the continuation of the Constitutional Reforms and Amendment of Codes subcommittee discussions on Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 on Monday, Feb. 12, Poe said that the country has made great strides in the past years liberalizing the Philippine economy without compromising national security or leaving behind Filipino businesses. 

"Would amending the public utilities provisions in our Constitution open the economy or open a can of worms? Mahalagang mailatag sa diskusyon ang mga naging debate at deliberasyon ng Amended Public Service Act o PSA sa mga sektor na bukas sa kontrol ng dayuhan (It's imperative that we discuss the debates and deliberations on the Amended Public Service Act o PSA to the sectors that's open to foreign control)," Poe said.

Poe said that this was done to encourage new players in sectors like airports, railways, expressways, and telecommunications. 

"The idea was: more competition means better services at better prices. All in all, a win for the Filipino consumers," she explained.

"Without changing the Constitution, and guided by the long line of cases decided by the Supreme Court as to what “public utilities” really are, we carved out public utilities which will remain covered by the 60 percent Filipino ownership requirement from public services that were opened up by the PSA to full foreign investments. This is a repeat performance of what we did with EPIRA decades ago, where we carved out power generation from public utility," she added.

She added that among those they retained under public utilities are industries known as natural monopolies or industries that is much cheaper and cost-effective if there's only one service provider. These are various distribution, transmission, and pipeline systems carrying essentials such as electricity, water, and petroleum. 

"Because of the nature of these natural monopolies, we needed to ensure the security and supply of these essential utilities. Siniguro natin na Pilipino pa rin ang may kontrol sa mga ito at kailanman ay hindi makokontrol ng mga dayuhan (We ensure that Filipinos will retain control of these and will never be under foreign control)," she said.

Ensuring seaports under Filipino ownership and control, according to Poe, was also a matter of economic and national security. As an archipelago, seaports are the gateways for large-scale transport of people and cargo. 

She mentioned as well that they ensured that Filipinos will have control over traditional and machine-powered passenger vehicles to protect drivers given that the Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) Modernization Program has not been sorted out yet. 

"With PSA, we protected the essentials while opening up others to much-needed investments," she said. 

In relation to the PSA, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that she saw the great care the Senate took when it identified the critical utilities that would still be under the protective mantle of the Constitutional prohibitions on foreign ownership. 

"I am also interested to find out if the problem really is the lack of foreign investments, or our chronic failure to address anti-competitive monopolistic behavior. Imbes na basagin ng Charter Change ang monopolyo ng mga dominant domestic companies, papalitan lang ba sila ng mga dayuhang kompanya? Ganun din, baka mas malala pa (Instead of Charter change dismantling the monopoly of dominant domestic companies, they will be just replaced with foreign companies? It's the same thing, maybe worse)," she added. 


Address the real causes

Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio that the real causes of low foreign direct investment must be the ones that are addressed and not the Constitution which are the high power rate, the bureaucratic regulation, and the infrastructure. 

"We have to address the real causes. The real cause is not the Constitution. Nobody cares. The President has been going abroad and has been saying I have secured almost a P500 billion in foreign investments and not one of those foreigners who plan to invest here required an amendment of our Constitution," Carpio said.

Carpio also called the reasons cited by the proponents of the recent People's Initiative (PI) who blame the restrictive provisions economic provisions of the Constitution for the low foreign direct investments, the high unemployment and the slow economic growth of our country as "false".

"These are all false reasons. The Philippines today has one of the most liberal foreign investment laws in ASEAN as well as in Asia. The Philippines without amending the Constitution has passed several laws to open the economy to 100 percent foreign ownership," he said.