Ex-SC chief tells House how not to put Cha-cha in limbo

Ex-SC chief tells House how not to put Cha-cha in limbo

A day after the House of Representatives said it was “willing to risk” a constitutional challenge to carry out amendments to economic provisions that limit foreign ownership, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno on Wednesday advised the chamber to avoid a scenario where their efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution would be questioned at the Supreme Court.

Speaking during the hearing where the House convened as a committee of the whole, Puno reminded the lawmakers that a constitutional challenge would essentially send their resolution into limbo.

He was referring to Resolution of Both Houses No. 7, which seeks to open public utilities, educational institutions and advertising to 100-percent foreign ownership.

“If that happens, all these wishes of us, all these desires of us, that we invite foreign businesses, will not come to reality,” he warned.

“Once this case is before the SC, we do not know the time it would be decided and we do not know how the court will decide.”

It was a reiteration of what Puno told the House during its first hearing on RBH 7 on Monday. He then said lawmakers could simply repeal the economic provisions they want relaxed, instead of amending the Constitution to add the phrase “unless otherwise provided by law.”

The former chief justice said this could open the floodgates to amendments through mere enactment of laws, “effectively short-circuiting the power of the people to approve or disapprove changes to the Constitution, (thus) subverting their sovereignty.”

He said adding the phrase was problematic as it could be interpreted as a “waiver of the power of the people to approve or disapprove any change to the Constitution or as a delegation of the people’s power to Congress.”

Puno had also suggested repealing Article 2, Section 19 of the Constitution, which states that

… Read more