EDITORIAL — Counterproductive
While the Constitution must be dynamic and responsive to the needs of the times, amending the basic law of the land is designed not to be easy. This is to ensure the widest consensus for any change, and to protect against frivolous and self-serving tinkering with the Charter.
The entire process will take several years, with no certainty of final approval for the amended or rewritten Charter. If the goal for the latest initiative is to make the country more attractive to investments, there are numerous measures that can and should be implemented without that long wait.
Disincentives to investments in this country are well known. Despite the passage of two laws and the issuance of executive orders to cut red tape and promote ease of doing business, investors still complain about dense tangles of red tape as well as unreasonable fees and requirements for opening, operating and closing a business. They are confused by the unpredictability and lack of uniformity in national and local government requirements. They complain about the weakness of the regulatory environment and the rule of law, the failure to honor contracts, rent-seeking and cronyism. Inadequate infrastructure and high energy costs have dampened manufacturing activities. These are problems that won’t be solved by Charter change.
Cha-cha has been considered by nearly every administration after the presidency of Corazon Aquino, beginning with Fidel Ramos who tried a people’s initiative, one of the modes provided under the Constitution. There was no Cha-cha effort during the aborted presidency of Joseph Estrada, while Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino frowned on the move.
The route to changing even one sentence in the Charter is circuitous. An amendment through any mode emanating from the House of Representatives will need cooperation from the Senate. In case this is accomplished, the amended or rewritten version must be ratified in a national plebiscite. The changes, and the route to their ratification, are certain to be elevated to the Supreme Court.
Every Cha-cha initiative ended in the dust bin because of suspicions that it was meant simply to lift term limits and perpetuate officials in power. Senators have
