Foreign investors avoiding PH due to Charter restrictions – lawmakers

FOREIGN investors are avoiding the country due to foreign ownership restrictions in the Constitution, two members of the House of Representatives said Wednesday.

Palawan Rep. Jose Alvarez, PDP-Laban president, told a news conference that the Korean ambassador to Manila has told him that out of 343 Korean investors, only three decided to locate in the Philippines.

“Yung 340 went to Vietnam. Hindi ba sapat na…na buksan na natin yung economy kasi kulelat na nga tayo sa buong ASEAN,” Alvarez, a former businessman, said.

He said recent liberalization laws passed by Congress like the amended Public Service Act are not enough to attract foreign investments.

“Yung mga napasang batas, opening-up the economy, hindi pa sapat. That’s very direct answer, because in the other countries, pagpalagay mo na sa Vietnam, wala namang foreign ownership sa lupa. Kasi in a communist state, all lands belong to the state. Pero definitive yung 25 years, 50 years, 75 years, ito iyong mga benepisyo. Ito yung investmet mo, ito yung taong i-employ mo. Kumpleto sa recados,” he said.

“Hindi ‘yung i-open-up mo lang ‘yung economy, Retail Trade Law, ‘yung Public Service Act, e kulang pa iyon e. Hindi sapat,” Alvarez added.

He pointed out that he has lived half of his life “practically in ASEAN, Singapore, Jakarta, Vietnam.”

“So, you can ask me how these countries develop,” he said.

Another former businessman-turned-lawmaker, Teodorico Haresco Jr. of Aklan, compared the Philippines and China in terms of ease of investing.

“In China, if I were a foreign businessman, I will just show the government a voucher, a purchase voucher, and the government will give me the land, give me the capital, give me the infrastructure necessary, the electricity,” Haresco said.

He cited the example of a Filipino-Chinese businessman who produces snack food under the brand name Oishi and who runs factories here and in China.

“For instance, this Filipino businessman has opened up 11 factories in China, using just a simple ingredient, cornstarch. So, a manufacturer of Oishi. Every factory that he opens is given $200 million and he is charged every year 5 percent, that includes the cost of capital given by the government and taxes. Five percent lang po, interest at taxes,” he said.

“So, he has 11 factories and growing all over China. So that is how they welcome foreign investments. Look at our ASEAN neighbors, when we started ASEAN 1967, we were No. 3 most prosperous country…since 1997, we were the last of the five founding members of ASEAN. Now we are third to the last, third and the last being Laos, second Myanmar,” he said.

Haresco said Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, members of ASEAN have changed their Constitution so many times to attract foreign capital.

“Thailand, 20…Indonesia, 9 times. Malaysia, so many times. So, they changed their Constitution to reflect the global changing world. We base our assumption that if we open up the discussion on the Constitution, we’d break up our society. That is completely untrue,” he added.

He pointed out that in the United States, “you can buy land, whatever you can investment in whatever, wherever, that’s the land of the free.”

“But it seems to me from the point of view of economics, our Constitution is for the land of the few. We don’t have enough capital, we don’t have enough technology, we don’t have enough foreign entrepreneurship to participate actively in this global world so that is why if we don’t open ourselves to this debate about opening up the constitution, we will be, not only the laggard of ASEAN, but of Asia,” he stressed.

Haresco called on Congress and the government to send clear signals to foreign investors.

“Let us have a healthy discussion. Ang sinabi nga ni Presidente, of highest national interest, kasi sinasabi nya sa buong mundo, sa kanyang paikot-ikot, we are open for business. Since the time of President Fidel V. Ramos, sinasabi nila, 8th Congress open for business, pero pagdating ng investor dito, sinasabi ng Konstitusyon, we are closed to business. So open, close, kaya naiiwanan tayo sa pansitan,” he said.

“Ang mga katabi natin na dating napakahirap, ang Vietnam, ang Tsina, ‘yung mga katabi natin yumayaman nang yumayaman kasi pag sinabi ng leader, open to business pagdating sa kanilang mga bansa, open talaga sila. Pero tayo, kunyari open pero pagdating dito, closed. So…we are open to a healthy discussion with our colleagues, the upper chamber,” he said, referring to the Senate.