This is a reposted editorial/opinion piece.
The “Freedom Constitution” helped nurture the country’s fragile, newly restored democracy. But the same period also saw the country continuing its slide in competitiveness, which started during the Marcos years. From being the second most promising economy in Asia after Japan in the early 1960s, the Philippines is now lagging behind many of its neighbors in most human development indicators.
The slide in competitiveness is glaring in the results of international academic competitions. It is also evident in the level of foreign direct investments, which create jobs, spur economic activity and raise incomes. Unable to attract sufficient job-generating FDI, the Philippines has instead sent millions of its people overseas, with many of them taking jobs that citizens of prosperous nations refuse to do.
Comparative studies of investment climates in Asian countries show that some of the biggest disincentives to FDI in the Philippines are mandated by the Constitution. The past 24 years since the Charter was passed was a period when dramatic changes swept the globe. A Constitution has to be dynamic, but every effort to amend the 1987 Charter has been shot down, mainly by public distrust of the motives of those behind the initiative. There was always the valid fear that public officials simply wanted to use the need to amend certain economic provisions to pursue political reforms and perpetuate themselves in power.
President Aquino has the credibility to support Cha-cha, since no one thinks he is interested in prolonging his stay in power. But echoing his late mother’s sentiment, he has said he sees no need for Charter change, even to attract FDI. With the tepid response to his flagship public-private partnership or PPP program, he might be amenable to the piecemeal “surgical” Cha-cha, where constitutional amendments would be introduced and passed like regular pieces of legislation.
The surgical Cha-cha was in fact proposed before the previous administration tried to railroad Charter change through an ill-conceived and – in the words of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s former chief legal counsel Avelino Cruz – a “legally harebrained” people’s initiative. The effort, as in previous ones, intended to rewrite the Constitution and shift to a parliamentary system of government. As indicated in surveys, this idea has always been unpopular in this country, with people seeing it as a thinly disguised effort by the same politicians and clans to stay in power forever. Will a surgical Cha-cha be acceptable to the public? Congress can test the waters and start the debate.
==============================================================================
Source: The Philippine Star, July 31, 2011
To view the original article, click here.
Comment here