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

“The right decisions are not always popular.”

Cagayan de Oro 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez had this to say as he appealed to the House of Representatives and the Senate to continue pursuing the economic amendments to the 1987 Constitution despite a Pulse Asia survey showing that most Filipinos do not support the initiative.

“The national leadership, beginning with President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., believes that changing the restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution would benefit the country as it would result in more foreign investments coming in,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

Rodriguez, who chairs the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, urged President Marcos and leaders of Congress to “stay the course”.

The veteran lawmaker said reversing course at this point would only worsen the country’s image before the investing community.

“It would strengthen their perception of the Philippines as urong-sulong (wishy-washy) when it comes to opening up its economy,” he said.

In a survey conducted from March 6 to 10 by polling firm Pulse Asia, at least 88 percent of Filipinos were shown to be not in favor of amending the Constitution “right now”.

Only eight percent were reportedly in favor of Charter change (Cha-cha).

Rodriguez said such results should not shut down ongoing efforts given that amending the restrictive economic provisions is shared by the business community, concerned incumbent and former government officials, economists, professionals, and other experts based on their testimonies in recent House hearings.

He said the resource persons favored the changing of foreign equity and ownership restrictions in public utilities, education, and advertising.

Rodriguez is one of the authors of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 7, the lower chamber’s version of the proposed economic constitutional amendments.

After the measure’s approval in the House, the Mindanao lawmaker is now asking the Senate to pass its counterpart measure, RBH No. 6, once Congress reconvenes later this month.

“The fate of economic Charter reform is in the hands of our senators,” he said.