President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. confers with Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez during the roundtable meeting Thursday morning with heads of the Malaysian Chambers of Commerce and other leading business leaders in the country.
INTRODUCING reforms to the Constitution will be limited to the basic law’s economic provisions strategically aimed at boosting the Philippine economy, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. declared on Thursday.
“I want to make it clear: This Administration’s position in introducing reforms to our Constitution extends to economic matters alone, or those strategically aimed at boosting our country’s economy. Nothing more,” the President said in his speech during the observation of the “Constitution Day 2024” in Makati City.
“In any event, this Administration is going to continue to push hard to attract more foreign investments to significantly help us achieve our ambition of upper middle-class income status by 2025,” he stated.
According to him despite nearly 16 percent decrement in the net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, the Philippine economy continues to grow and is expected to grow further by 6 and a half to 7 and a half percent this year.
The President also rallied for public support to join him and the government in defending the sanctity of the Constitution, the nation’s territorial integrity and the people’s sovereign will, as he promised to be “Great Protector of the Constitution.”
During the same event, retired Supreme Court chief justice Renato S. Puno cited the United States’ experience, saying there is no Constitution – by people and among people “that is perfect, errorless, hence timeless and (without) changes.”
Puno said the public is seeing today a lot of pushing and pulling between and among different sectors of the society that may drag the nation toward unwanted constitutional crisis.
One of these controversies involved People’s Initiative to amend Constitution, which is an important power of the people to approve and disapprove.
Another controversy involves the call to separate Mindanao from the republic, which may bring about disturbance of the public, said the former SC chief.
“We’re more than fortunate that tonight we have the President, the leader of our people who can share his valuable his insights on this divisive issues and other issues and how should be resolved in a democratic and republican way,” he added.
