Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (Facebook)

Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez commended the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) for supporting Congress' proposed amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

In a statement on Monday, April 22, Rodriguez expressed appreciation to the public advocacy group for “having the interest of the nation at heart”.

“They firmly believe, as we do, that lifting foreign equity restrictions would bring in foreign direct investments (FDIs), which in turn will create more job and income opportunities for our people,” he said.

In a position paper, FEF emphasized that the House of Representatives’ Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7 and its counterpart Senate measure RBH No. 6 will “provide certainty to the country’s economic policy direction”.

The group pointed out that giving Congress the flexibility to create legislation that is responsive to “global and domestic economic realities” will be most beneficial for the Filipino people.

Under the proposed economic Charter change (Cha-cha), lawmakers of both chambers are pushing to lift the restrictions on foreign ownership of public utilities, education, and advertisement.

“The uncertainty in our economic policy framework stems from the contradiction between the restrictive provisions in our Constitution and the attempts to mitigate them through legislation,” FEF said, suggesting that this latest move to amend the 37-year-old Constitution is most viable to attract FDIs into the country.

The group noted that there seems to be uncertainty from foreign investors, given that previous legislative efforts to loosen restrictions were rendered moot through the Supreme Court (SC) on the grounds of constitutionality.

With this, potential investors are forced to await resolution on the challenges to be certain of the actual policy in the Philippines. FEF said this causes “great damage” to the country’s image on the global stage.

“In summary, it is easy to find fault with proposed solutions to problems, while being completely comfortable with doing the exact same thing that created the problems in the first place. After 100 years of solitude from FDI, we believe it’s about time we try solving the problem,” it said, referring to the need to amend the Constitution itself to prevent a possible roadblock from the SC.

Rodriguez, chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, highlighted the group’s expertise on the matter. Its membership roster includes former finance secretary Gary Teves and former economic planning secretary Gerardo Sicat.

The House recently approved on third and final reading RBH No. 7, while the Senate’s RBH No. 6 remains pending on the subcommittee level.