Charter change (cha-cha) is once again alive in Congress. Although business groups support the initiative to liberalize the economy, they say that amending the Constitution 15 months before the national elections will only be “divisive.”
Lawmakers, they added, should instead focus on passing pending measures reforming the country’s existing economic policies while the country is in the middle of a pandemic.
In this episode of B-Side, Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo A. Garbin, Jr.,—chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments—speaks with BusinessWorld reporter Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza about the resolution filed by House Speaker Lord Allan Q. Velasco in 2019, which seeks to amend the “restrictive” economic provisions of the Constitution that bar foreign investors from owning more than 40% of certain industries.
