Rodriguez to Zubiri: Laws cannot change the Constitution

The restrictions provided by the 1987 Constitution cannot be amended by passing laws, House Committee on Constitutional Amendments chairperson Rufus Rodriguez said Monday.

Rodriguez was responding to Senate President Miguel Zubiri’s comments on Sunday arguing that foreign investors are already ready to go to the Philippines even without Charter change since the amendments to the Public Service Act have already been signed into law by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

The amendments, signed into law in March 2022, effectively allows 100% foreign ownership of telecommunications and railways, among other things, since the law reclassifies telecommunications, railways, airlines, and logistical facilities as public services from their previous classification as public utilities.

Under the 1987 Constitution, foreigners may only own up to 40% of public utilities.

“The Senate President is dead wrong on his stand that laws (statutes) can amend the Constitution. Of course not. The previous laws amending the Public Service Act are now being questioned by at least two petitions in the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional,” Rodriguez, a lawyer, said in a statement.

“Just amending the Public Service Act to change the constitutional provisions prohibiting or limiting foreign investments cannot and will not pass constitutional muster,” he added.

In addition, Rodriguez said he has yet to see proof of foreign-owned airlines, shipping companies, and railway companies applying for franchise or authority to open their businesses in the Philippines.

“How can foreign companies apply to do business here under the amendments of the Public Service Act when the Constitutionality of these amendments have been questioned in the Supreme Court?” Rodriguez argued.

He said Zubiri and the Senate should not get in the way of Constitutional changes that seek to shore up foreign capital to generate more investments and jobs in the country.

“As to the sale of land to foreigners, it is not one of the amendments the House has submitted to the Senate. [And so] we are appalled by the obstructionist stance of the Senate for economic amendments to our Constitution. We are now Number 8 in Foreign Direct Investments in 10-member ASEAN. Alarmingly, We have been overtaken by Vietnam and Cambodia,” he said.

”We are only ahead of Laos and Myanmar. We need to provide more employment opportunities to our people and more business taxes to finance our social services,” Rodriguez added.

Speaker Martin Romualdez of Leyte earlier said that the House of Representatives will focus on efforts amending the Constitution in 2024.

The House of Representatives in March approved on third and final reading Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 6, which calls for a constitutional convention (Con-con) to amend the 1987 Constitution. 

RBH No. 6 states that a con-con—with delegates to be elected to draft the new constitution—“would be the most transparent, exhaustive, democratic, and least divisive means of implementing constitutional reforms.”

Charter change initiatives in the Senate remain stuck at committee-level deliberations. — BM, GMA Integrated News