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Opinion: Philippines for Sale
Photo Credits: Claire Tamayo
The Philippines attained its freedom in 1946. This event signifies that our country is now fully independent from foreign powers. But our government has made a bill that may possibly sell off this independence.
Last February 18, Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved on its second reading a bill seeking to allow foreign ownership of telecommunication and transportation businesses.
The bill, House Bill 78 (HB 78), delineates “public service” from “public utility” and sets a distinction between the two terms. This bill aims to amend the existing Commonwealth Act No. 146 or Public Service Law where the two terms are interchangeable. Under HB 78, “public service” covers telecommunication, transportation, gas, electric light, heat and power water supply, and petroleum, among others, and "public utility” covers the distribution and transmission of electricity, water pipeline distribution system, and sewerage pipeline system.
The problem with the bill is that it forgets the “60-40 rule on foreign ownership”. Section 11, Article XII of the Constitution states that a public utility should only be owned by a Filipino citizen, corporations, or associations organized under the laws of the Philippines, with at least 60% of its capital owned by such citizens while the remaining 40% may go to foreign ownership. House bill 78 basically disregards this, not mentioning anything about this 60-40 rule.
This shouldn’t be possible, first off. According to Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Arlene Brosas, HB 78 forces to amend the Constitution with legislation. This isn’t valid when only three modes, namely, Constitutional Convention, Constituent Assembly, or through People’s Initiative, can amend it.
Even bigger than this is how local businesses risk getting displaced. This bill completely opens the most basic needs of the Philippine market to foreign companies. With no limit to who can own these public services or how much of them are owned by actual Filipinos, foreign powers will come rolling in.
Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, who introduced the bill, argues that lifting the cap on foreign ownership will significantly contribute to increasing competition, which will help lower prices and improve the quality of basic services.
He may have a point in saying that the competition among businesses will result in lower prices and better public services. But Defend Jobs Philippines, a non-profit organization formed by various labor groups, points out that this might have adverse effects on the common Filipino worker. These adverse effects include cheaper wages, docile labor and slashed benefits in favor for profits, more difficult set-ups for workers in terms of the level of bargaining, labor flexibilization schemes, and job security issues.
House Committee on Economic Affairs Chair Sharon Garin also released in a statement that HB 78 would help improve the "deplorable state" of the Philippines' public services by giving more leeway for foreign direct investment.
Both Sharon Garin and Joey Salceda support the implementation of HB 78, but their arguments contradict one another. Sharon Garin admitted in her statement that public services here in the Philippines are “deplorable”. If that is the case, how are these local companies expected to be able to compete with foreign companies for the same market? How will competition be promoted in a country where deplorable services are put up against more advanced foreign corporations?
It's also incredibly ironic for the House of Representatives to push for HB 78 when media network ABS-CBN is being shut down for alleged foreign ownership. If ABS-CBN shuts down before the House bill is officially signed by the president, it would be incredibly unfair for the said media network and the people who work in it, not to mention hypocritical.
Public services are the basic needs of a country. If we let foreigners in and let them handle our problems in public service, it will essentially be the same as giving up.
The Philippines has issues with its public services and you can see that this is true just by looking at statistics on the internet about how our country ranked 101st among 179 countries in terms of internet speeds. But this is not an excuse to give out our problems for foreigners to solve. The government should instead focus on making laws that aim to answer the poor public service here in the Philippines. This is our country and these are our problems, therefore it is our responsibility to solve them through our own processes. //by Simon Delfinado
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