[caption id="attachment_228" align="aligncenter" width="324" caption="Proponents of Cha-cha must be cooking something besides further opening up our economy to foreign investors. (www.bulatlat.com)"]
[/caption]If we were to believe our venerable Representatives, the only reason they want to change our Constitution is to further open up our market to foreign investors. No more no less. It isn’t a ploy to extend GMA’s or any other incumbent officials’ terms. By opening up our economy, foreign investments will be flooding in.
“I am asking for an economic provision na 60-40 tatanggalin natin dahil ito palagay ko naiiwan tayo ng ibang Asian countries dahil sila open for foreign investment samantalang tayo limited ang foreign investments natin,” Speaker Nograles, the pride of Davao, was reported to have said. Apparently, he’s trying to allay fears that the administration-sponsored Cha-cha is a pretext to further GMA’s hold on power.
What a noble cause!
But the recent Cha-cha moves provide excellent case study of dogs (read: sleazy Representatives) barking up the wrong tree.
Rex C. Drilon II’s exposition (Cha-cha and foreign investment) said it all: The idea that opening up our economy so foreign investments may flow is a wrong notion. Proof of this is that Philippines has neighbors with far more restrictive economies but whose foreign direct investments are far higher than ours:
The Philippines has a neighbor, a non-English speaking, communist country where there is no freedom of speech nor free press, no religious freedoms, no judicial and legal system as we know it, no code of commerce nor code of corporate governance. It received more than $9 billion in foreign direct investments (FDIs) last year. It is a restrictive economy.
The biggest country in the region with similar sociopolitical and economic environment received $60 billion last year in FDI in spite of human rights violations, use of child labor, tainted products and is probably the world’s biggest violator of intellectual property rights. This year, its FDIs are expected to reach $115 billion. It, too, has a restrictive economy.
On the other hand, we who have been christened as the bastion of Christianity in Asia, praised for our Edsas, proficiency in English etc. only received “a little over $2 billion in 2007 and as of October 2008, we are told we are down 58 percent and will be lucky if we get $1 billion.”
So why is Philippines so aloof to foreign investors?
Our venerable Congressmen want us to believe it’s the Constitutional provision that restricts foreign investors from investing. But people like Rex C. Drilon II thought otherwise. “Corruption, uneven playing field, ineffective governance and leadership, changing rules, no sense of urgency for reforms and a negative country image, among others, are the reasons why.”
Can Cha-cha solve them all?
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