Wrong time to pursue divisive Cha-cha
CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte on Sunday said the House leadership would just fritter away the precious time of the chamber should it go ahead this last session week on giving its final nod to Charter Change (Cha-Cha), considering that senators appear in no mood to pursue constitutional reform in this 18th Congress.
“Why fritter away the House’s precious time this last session week prior to adjournment on passing RHB 2 (Resolution of Both Houses No. 2) on third and final reading, when it seems certain Cha-Cha doesn’t have a chance of happening in the Senate between now and next year?” Villafuerte stressed.
Villafuerte said RHB 2 is “practically dead in the water” as key Senate leaders—among them Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sen. Mary Grace Poe Llamanzares, who chairs the committee on public services—have separately shot down this proposal to amend the restrictive economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution as soon as the House had passed it on second reading.
“Hence, going through the motion of passing RHB 2 on third and final reading will just be an exercise in futility, especially when the House leadership could better spent the precious hours this last remaining session week prior to adjournment on more urgent measures such as on COVID-19 response and economic recovery,” Villafuerte said.
He said “a more pragmatic and faster route to attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows is for both the House and the Senate to fast-track committee and plenary deliberations on three investor-friendly amendatory bills that President Duterte had certified as urgent measures, and which Secretaries Carlos Dominguez III of the Department of Finance and Ramon Lopez of Department of Trade and Industry both endorsed during a recent hearing of the House committee on constitutional amendments.
These three measures that are likely to attract FDIs soon after they win congressional approval and are enacted into law by the President are those proposing revisions to Commonwealth Act No. 146 or the Public Service Act (PSA), Republic Act (RA) No. 7042 or the Foreign Investments Act (FIA) of 1991,’and RA 8762 or the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA) of 2000.
Although a longtime advocate of constitutional reform, Villafuerte said “now is the wrong time to pursue the highly divisive and counterproductive Cha-Cha when national attention should remain focused on (coronavirus disease-19) COVID-related priorities such as reversing vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos and fast-tracking the nationwide rollout of anti-coronavirus jabs, plus undertaking measures to boost consumer and business confidence and thus accelerate the economic recovery.”
“The House leadership’s continued fixation with RHB 2 becomes a truly waste of the chamber’s time when one considers that our senators do not seem to be in a mood to dance the Cha-Cha,” he said.
Villafuerte said the President’s decision to officially endorse the three economic bills in lieu of RHB 2 is a telling mark that Malacañang does not regard Cha-Cha as the silver bullet that would address the country’s relatively modest FDI inflows despite its pre-pandemic status as one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies that had a two-decade streak of uninterrupted growth.
