Research group IBON is challenging the succeeding\nSenate to prove its independence by rejecting the proposal to amend the 1987\nPhilippine Constitution or Charter change (Cha-cha). Lawmakers should keep in\nmind the dangers that Cha-cha poses on Philippine economic sovereignty, said\nthe group, and not be swayed into passing other laws that fulfill the\nconsistent goal of Cha-cha to open the economy to full foreign participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In December last year, the Lower House\ntransmitted its approved, consolidated version of proposed constitutional\namendments, Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 15, to the Philippine Senate. Aside\nfrom establishing a federal state and removing term limits, Cha-cha would\nimplement neoliberal amendments to the Philippine constitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said that while RBH 15 expires on June 30 this\nyear, the Duterte government has sustained its espousal of Cha-cha by organizing an Inter-Agency Task Force on Federalism and Constitutional\nReforms and can easily restart or\nexpedite deliberations under an administration-dominated 18th<\/sup>\nCongress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Partial unofficial tallies show a majority win for\ncandidates backed by the Duterte administration, IBON noted. An administration\nwin can bring standing Upper House support for Cha-cha to 11 comprised of\nincoming senators Bong Go, Ronald dela Rosa, Pia Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Francis\nTolentino, Sonny Angara, Aquilino Pimentel III, Bong Revilla, plus incumbent\nsenators Vicente Sotto III, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Manny Pacquiao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IBON stressed that Cha-cha would strike out the\nnationalist provisions of the constitution and liberalize the economy to\nforeign investors. Moreover, said the group, Cha-cha will limit government\u2019s\nrole in protecting the Philippine economy and allow foreign ownership of\nnatural resources, educational institutions, mass media and advertising, public\nutilities, and strategic enterprises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposed amendments also remove pertinent\nprovisions affecting Philippine employment opportunities, labor rights, and\naccess to basic social services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cha-cha would remove provisions on using the\npreferential use of Filipino labor and limiting professions to Filipinos, noted\nIBON. This will worsen the country\u2019s jobs crisis. For instance, more Filipinos\ngo abroad for work than new jobs are created locally. In the first semester of\n2018, the average number of Filipinos who went abroad for work daily was 5,757,\nwhile only 2,263 new jobs were created on average per day during the same\nperiod, said IBON.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group added that important stipulations on labor\nrights such as security of tenure, humane conditions of work, and a living\nwage, are deleted in the proposed Cha-cha. Already, IBON observed, 2018 data\nshows that 8.5 million workers of private companies and 985,000 workers in\ngovernment agencies are still non-regular workers. Meanwhile, the Family Living\nWage (FLW) as of March 2019 is at Php1,004 for a family of five compared to\nwhich the National Capital Region\u2019s (NCR) minimum wage of Php537 falls short. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The proposed Cha-cha also narrows government\u2019s role in\nproviding basic social services such as health development and affordable\nhousing by adhering to the\nneoliberal policy of privatization, IBON said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The group further warned that proposals to open public\nutilities to full foreign ownership such as proposed amendments to the Public\nServices Act (PSA), and to increase areas that are open to foreign investments\nsuch as through revisions to the foreign investments negative list (FINL), are\nin the works and ground breaking the eventual neoliberalization of the highest\nlaw of the land. IBON said that legislative amendments such as these are being\nprioritized by government and will serve the same purpose of opening the\neconomy for big business and foreign profit-seekers. Nationalists and people\u2019s\nrights defenders among the country\u2019s lawmakers, if there are any left standing,\nshould be vigilant against these moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IBON pointed out that the midterm elections are fast\nconcluding with incredible results that will be favorable to the Duterte\nadministration’s neoliberal legislative agenda. The Filipino people have reason\nto doubt that the passage of Cha-cha and other laws surrendering national\npatrimony will not be as ‘magical’ as the election results, IBON added. This\nwill be so unless nationalists and people’s rights advocates shall continue to\nchallenge the Philippine legislature.###<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research group IBON is challenging the succeeding Senate to prove its independence by rejecting the proposal to amend the 1987 Philippine Constitution or Charter change (Cha-cha). Lawmakers should keep in mind the dangers that Cha-cha poses on Philippine economic sovereignty, said the group, and not be swayed into passing other laws that fulfill the consistent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[14],"tags":[2023,2022,357,1876,355,1221,1143,2021,2020,116,1191,83,2024],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8033,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8031\/revisions\/8033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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