Lagman: Cha-cha to open economy to foreign powers

ALBAY Rep. Edcel Lagman yesterday said the separate efforts by the House of Representatives and the Senate to review and introduce amendments to the Constitution will most likely lead to the opening of the country’s economy and land to foreign ownership.

Lagman, who is a member of the Liberal Party, said the “war” against the 1987 Constitution has been launched from two fronts – one from the House through a people’s initiative (PI) by specifically making the voting procedure in a constituent assembly (con-ass) as a joint voting by congressmen and senators, and another, by Senate amendments through a con-ass with the House and Senate voting separately on proposed amendments to the Charter’s economic provisions.

“I believe these apparently separate efforts will end in a compromise by opening wide the economy to alien investments through a constituent assembly, with the House and the Senate fast-tracking the approval of the constitutional amendment with the backing of both chambers even voting separately,” Lagman said in a statement.

The veteran lawmaker warned that once the amendments are introduced, “the victim will be the nation’s patrimony when sensitive enterprises like public service, education, media and advertisement will be open to alien control and domination.”

“The Charter change initiatives will divide and obfuscate the people and divert the efforts of the political departments from the real problems not attributable to the Constitution,” he also said.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri last Monday said President Marcos Jr. has tasked the Senate to spearhead the deliberations on proposals to amend the 1987 Constitution as he believes that the PI mode being pushed by the House was “too divisive.”

Zubiri has already filed Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No.6, which essentially called for the House and the Senate to convene as a con-ass to introduce the revisions.

Lagman insisted that Charter change “is out of step because the President and the Congress must address the crippling crises in the economy, agriculture, food security, education, fiscal deficit, debt burden, and China’s continuing aggression in the West Philippine Sea, the vast and rich