The Problem of Legislation in the Philippines
Posted on Tuesday, 1 July 2014
The
Problem of Legislation
in the Philippines
By
Apolinario Villalobos
There
is a move
by Philippine Congress
to amend a
particular section of
Constitution to accommodate
the government ‘s effort
in enticing foreign
investors in the
Philippines. The assurance
of the Congress
is that nothing
else shall be
touched, except the
insertion of the
“unless, otherwise, provided
by law…”, which
is self-explanatory. However,
though, those four
innocent and simply
spelled words could
mean a disaster
if triggered by
another simple word
- abuse. A
dangerous scenario is
that of future
legislators coming up with
laws that will favor
foreign investors in
exchange for favors.
Future lawmakers will
no longer be
interested in pork
barrels which are
theoritically scrapped, but
in commissions from
foreign investors favored
by the law
that they shall passed.
The
Filipinos are already
suffering from the
effect of laws
that altered the
economic system of
the country. Foremost
of these are
those that privatized
the basic service
providers and oil
deregulation. The
government seems helpless
in undoing the
policies that are
glaringly damaging to
the lot of
Filipinos. Even
without the proposed
change in the Constitution, somehow ,
existing laws regarding
investment in the
country are already
circumvented to favor
some parties. Add
to these the
invasion of foreign
miners, and, what
do we get?
Discussion