SEVERAL members of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet have expressed support for the initiative of the House of Representatives to rewrite the Constitution’s “restrictive” economic provisions, Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Representative Rufus Rodriguez said Wednesday.

“We are encouraged by the statements/position papers of members of the President’s economic team and of the Cabinet who share our desire and goal for the country to attract more foreign investments through economic reform in the Constitution,” he said.

Rodriguez, who chairs the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said the latest economic team member to support the House constitutional amendment push is Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno.

“We are heartened by Secretary Diokno’s supportive statement. He is an influential voice in the administration and in the business community,” he added.

The Mindanao lawmaker also cited the position papers presented to his committee by Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Alfredo Balisacan, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian, and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo.

The five departments were among the departments of government officially requested by the Rodriguez committee to present their positions on “economic revision” in recent public hearings held at the House of Representatives.

DTI, headed by Pascual, said recently-enacted laws provide some space for liberalization in certain sectors of the economy, such as foreign investment, retail trade, and telecommunications.

“However, we still note that several foreign equity restrictions are still enshrined in the Constitution, rather in an investment law or sectoral legislation, which actually makes economic reform more challenging… I think we’re the only two countries (the other is Myanmar) that have economic restrictions, foreign (investment) limitations that are enshrined in the Constitution,” he said.

Basilican said: “NEDA would be open to revisiting or amending the restrictive economic provisions… in line with, of course, the goal of propelling our growth, projecting our global position upward.”

The DILG headed by Abalos told the Rodriguez committee that his department has written its Core Constitutional Reform Handbook, which advocates Charter amendments, including “liberalizing citizenship-based restrictions on foreign direct investment.”

The DSWD led by Gatchalian stated: “We believe that amending the Constitution is timely and necessary, particularly the economic provisions that are already outdated and are no longer in the context of the present economic situation.”

The position paper of the DFA headed by Manalo, as presented during the hearing, stated: “A lot of foreigners want to retire in our country, but they want to own their retirement home. They end up, more often than not, marrying a Filipina, as a workaround. They want to own an investment, it’s very difficult for them.”

Rodriguez said local government units (LGUs) grouped under the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), led by Quirino Gov. Dakila Cua, have also supported the House initiative.

“Whether through the process of a constituent assembly or constitutional convention, we can clearly see that some changes are necessary to address the various challenges the country is facing,” Cua said in a position paper submitted to the House.

Rodriguez said the economic team of former President Rodrigo Duterte, led by then finance secretary Carlos Dominguez, had likewise backed efforts to change the Charter’s economic provisions.