Shall we dance?

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Sonny Belmonte are pushing for the amendment of the Philippine Constitution. They believe that they have the numbers to get the proposal run through the legislative mill without hitch.

So far we have not heard any opposition from the minority in the Congress, which indicates that there is a general consensus to change the charter. But this can be the calm before the storm.

The business community is also endorsing the move though some feeble voices within this sector are opposed to the move. Will the country dance to the Enrile-Belmonte music?

We are back to dancing the Cha-Cha – the Charter Change that had been attempted under Fidel Ramos and then by Gloria Arroyo

There was public opposition against the plan of these past presidents due to the lack of public trust in their government. There was general perception that they would perpetuate themselves in office. The Constitution framed by a Commission appointed by President Corazon Aquino worked on the fear of another martial law and thus they wrote a Constitution with plenty of safeguards against such a situation.

Enrile and Belmonte probably thought that the popular support for President Benigno Aquino would be just the right environment for another Cha-Cha attempt but the latest report shows that Aquino is not keen to such a move that would relegate his mother's legacy into the archives.

The proponents and supporters of the Cha-Cha are divided on which provisions are to be amended. Some say they want only the economic provisions so as to open the country to massive foreign investments. The 60-40 ratio in the shares of stocks in corporations in favor of Filipinos is considered a stumbling block although this reasoning falls flat in the face of foreign investments in China where foreigners cannot own a majority shares as well.

Our experience with foreign control of vital and strategic areas of the economy will leave us helpless. Even now, the investments of foreigners fronted and controlled by Filipinos, like those of Manuel Pangilinan, siphon money out of the country. This is neo-economic colonialism which has little concern for the native citizenry only the profit of their principals in other countries.

Foreign investors are not here to help us but to suck out whatever they could in return for their money.

Take the case of the Riverside Medical Center which Pangilinan's foreign bosses recently purchased. Cost has gone up. Patients cannot buy medicine outside of the hospital pharmacy where prices are exorbitant. Physicians cannot prescribe medicine except that which the hospital pharmacy sells.

The main thrust of the planned amendment is the national economy because the economic provisions of the Constitution are believed to discourage foreign investment. This is misleading because other countries have also safeguards against foreign dominance. We will become peons of foreign capitalists.

There is also a danger that when the Congress is given this task of amending the Constitution, there is no guarantee it will limit itself to purely economic provisions. It can always be argued that economic policy needs political restructuring to best implement it. Then we open the floodgates for politicians to insure their own benefit, like extending their terms of office.

There are promises that there will be no extension, but will you accept the promise of politicians as gospel truth? Remember they even take oaths of office which they violate.

There are many provisions in the present Constitution that have not been enacted into law so that Congress ought to spend more time passing laws that will still allow the foreigners to do business in the Philippines profitably, like looking for means to reduce the cost of electricity.

The search for alternative sources of energy, for instance, is stuck in Congress. Solar power is not given much attention although the rest of the world is going solar, that renewable source of life that can be tapped to provide endless source of power.

The offer of foreign investors in this area does not require 100 percent ownership of the shares of the corporation only a better deal, like reduced tariff to drastically lower the cost of solar panels.

Why is Congress not acting on this cheap power source? The control of petroleum companies is strong and pervasive enough for us to allow them the exploit us some more by letting go of the little we have.

President Aquino is right in this regard. Amending the Constitution is not the panacea to our ills but will only add to our woes. We have enough laws protecting the foreigners, in fact, little protection for our local industries from foreign competition.

Just take a look at the plight of our agricultural products that are faced with extinction from foreign goods coming in under the free trade agreements.*

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