| By KAREN V. BERMEJO |

To attract investment, there is a need to reform the Philippines’ Constitution not the economic provisions, according to a non-government group.

“The very structure of our industries, society and politics are the real barriers to the entry of foreign investment, not the economic provisions of the constitution,” according to Coalition for Citizens’ Constitution, a national movement for economic development and a member of the Iloilo Caucus of Development NGOs and the Western Visayas Network of Social Development NGOs.

Emmanuel Areño, executive director of Icode said that changes in the economic provisions of the country will attract foreign investments, but the country should not allow foreign ownership to monopolize in our country.

The group said that foreign ownership would jack up prices of land in the cities and town centers, adversely affecting the urban poor’s campaign for safe, decent and affordable human settlements.

Areño also noted that almost 60 percent of the country’s resources come from the Visayas and Mindanao, but only 35 percent were given back to the regions and all are concentrated in Metro Manila.

FEDERALISM

Areño also said that there is a need to strengthen local governance through the imposition of federal system which recognizes fair rights of each state or region.

“The local government units should be the roots of the system to improve the economy,” he said.

He also added that investment should be disseminated in all parts of the country and must not be concentrated in one area only.

Through federalism, the local government will have the power to implement basic social services, protection of human rights and implementation of asset reform initiatives.

AMENDMENTS

With barely a year before election time begins, Areño said that the issue of changing the constitution will come to light again.

The move to alter the country’s political system was one of the topics of the Congress in the last quarter of 2011 but was outshined by new issues like the impeachment trial of the chief justice and the disasters that raked the country.

Areño said there are needed changes in the existing Constitution, among which is the improvements on agrarian sector, urban poor and urban land rights of the people, protection of the rights of labor groups, strengthen indigenous people’s group, party list, and the improvement of national patrimony.

With these provisions, Raniel Ponteras, national council for the Visayas of Akbayan, said that the government should create programs that will give more options to workers, farmers and other sectors of the society.

“Before we open our market to investors, we must give more alternatives for the people,” he said.

Ponteras also added that with the growing number of big companies in the country, the rights of the Filipino workers must be protected first.

ECONOMY

Ted Ong of Freedom from Debt Coalition said that to improve the slow economic development of the country, the current administration must review current bilateral trade agreement and must not be restrictive to further economic activities in the country.

According to Areño, the country has a domestic oriented economy. Although it is open for business, he added it still cannot attract foreign investments due to the “poor system we have.”

“The cost of doing business in the country is low but slow,” he said.

With the on-going impeachment trial on the Senate againt Chief Justice Renato Corona, and with the Congress as part of the prosecution team, the group said that an on-going campaign on the reforms on the constitution will be undertaken in the community, especially among the youth sector.*