Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Friday urged the Senate to tackle the House resolution seeking amendments in the Constitution’s “restrictive” economic provisions.
Rodriguez, chair of the House committee on constitutional amendments, made the appeal a day after attending the forum sponsored by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) on efforts in Congress to introduce changes in the Charter.
He said the House had transmitted Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 2 and its implementing House Bill 7352 before the Halloween recess of Congress in March.
“We want to resolve this issue on Charter change during our first regular session or in the early part of our second regular session, if possible. If we delay it, we will be overtaken by the 2025 election campaign season, and people would again suspect our constitutional reform push of being politically motivated,” he said.
He said previous constitutional amendment efforts failed because they were undertaken when a sitting administration or Congress was about to finish its term.
“We should avoid that so that our initiative could succeed this time. As it is, we are fast running out of time,” Rodriguez stressed.
RBH 2 seeks the convening of a constitutional convention to propose amendments to the basic law. HBill 7352 implements the resolution.
In his speech before PCCI members, Rodriguez said the current Charter amendment push in the House is focused on tweaking the language of the Constitution’s economic provisions to give Congress flexibility in changing foreign investment/ownership restrictions.
He said though Congress recently introduced liberalization amendments in some laws like the Public Service Act and Foreign Investment Act, those changes did not alter constitutional limitations.
“We should consider that the Constitution is the fundamental law of the land. Unless and until the constitutional restrictions are removed, the apprehensions and hesitancy on the part of foreign investors will always remain,” he said.
The PCCI earlier expressed support for rewriting the Charter’s economic provisions. Rodriguez is set to attend another constitutional reform forum at the Ateneo de Davao College of Law on May 24.