MANILA (UCAN): “This is not an opportune time to deal with charter change. We are in the midst of a pandemic with millions of our countrymen suffering from lack of food, shelter, jobs, education and a decent comprehensive healthcare system,” the Council of the Laity of the Philippines said in a January 18 statement criticising a bill that seeking to revise economic provisions in the country’s constitution that limit foreign ownership of land and corporations.
Lawmakers want to ease restrictions and allow wider foreign ownership of land and businesses. The bill also seeks to change the ownership and management of mass media firms, public utilities and educational institutions. The council said that lawmakers should have more urgent priorities to address.
It said the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and its effects on society should be the lawmakers’ primary concern. “The whole exercise … advocating for charter change is a sheer waste of precious time, effort and money,” the council said.
The constitution currently limits foreign ownership of corporations to not more than 40 per cent, while media ownership and management are reserved for Filipinos only.
“The 1,489 members of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines prepared a resolution in support of the surgical amendments including the lifting of restrictive economic provisions of the constitution,” Jonathan Malaya, undersecretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government told reporters.
He said constitutional reforms would lead to economic recovery by allowing more infusion of foreign investments and capital.
Council of the Laity warned people to be on their guard against political moves that seem to promote the common good yet forward self-interests.
“We oppose these moves. We urge our countrymen to be vigilant, pray, discern and speak out. We call on our lawmakers to address the needs of the people now. They need your attention,” the statement said.
Lawyer and constitutional law expert, Tony La Vina, warned that changing economic provisions could lead to political ones, including extending the term of the president, Rodrigo Duterte.
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“Once you establish a constituent assembly, nobody can say that we cannot discuss anything else. I can guarantee that there will be political provisions that will be amended, and it will essentially be about the extension of terms,” La Vina told reporters.
During a Mass on January 24, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese Manila, added his voice to the hue and cry saying, that “it is the people that needs to be reformed, not the system,” CBCP reported
“It will be transformed if we have transformed leaders and transformed citizens,” Bishop Pabillo said in his homily at the Sanctuario de San Jose in Mandaluyong City.
