Senior lawmakers back Cha-cha initiative By Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star) | Updated June 18, 2013 - 12:00am MANILA, Philippines - Senior pro-administration lawmakers backed yesterday moves of the leadership of the House of Representatives to push for amendments to restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution to attract investments and capital. Representatives Magtanggol Gunigundo of Valenzuela City and Romero Quimbo of Marikina City have expressed support for the Charter change initiative of Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. Gunigundo said in pushing for the amendments, there should be a guarantee for the smooth implementation of the changes by local governments to fully encourage investors. “Changes in the economic provisions of the Constitution have good intentions,” he said. “But it will be handicapped by local governments that fail to streamline procedures.” Gunigundo said the Department of the Interior and Local Government should focus on attracting investments, not limit itself to police and peace and order functions. “Following the Doing Business in Philippines Indicators, there should be a streamlining procedure in the issuance of business permits, building permits, transfer of real property and payment of real property taxes,” he said. Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Quimbo expressed support for the review of the economic provisions. Earlier, Belmonte said the country’s growth is on the right track but much remains to be done, including by Congress, to make sure the economy would not be derailed as the government implements reforms. “Now is the time to reflect on the needed structural reforms towards inclusive and sustained growth and the key element of inclusive growth is job generation,” he said. “To increase jobs, we must boost investments, and there’s no going around that.” Belmonte said what the Philippines needs are more foreign direct investments and not just portfolio investments, and this can be done through improving competitiveness through various reform legislation. Amendments to the Constitution need not be controversial and complicated to attract foreign direct investments, he added. Belmonte suggested that Congress simply insert the provision “unless otherwise provided by law” in various restrictive economic provisions in the Constitution to empower Congress and the President to make competitive laws that would adapt to the constantly changing global economic environment. philstar/headlines/2013/06/18/955213/senior-lawmakers-back-cha-cha-initiative
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:11:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015