21 December 2005
EDITORIAL: No to full foreign ownership of utilities, etc.
WE fully agree that the Consultative Commission members deserve the President’s and the People’s congratulations for doing a good job. Up close during the Pangasinan leg of their nationwide consultations, despite time constraints, the Con-Com commissioners who came from diverse fields and sectors were able to project their sincerity and frankness in “trying to help” the country get out of its present rut. Now, they have submitted their final report to President Arroyo who will shortly endorse it to the Speaker of the House and the Senate President for action or disposition.
In all probability, and at the risk of going ahead of the honorable men and women of Congress, the country’s going to have a parliamentary-federal form and structure of government if not next year, then soon after.
This newspaper fully supports such a course. The presidential system of government has been self-destructing all this time and making elections of officials a big farce because of all the spending. While the parliamentary system might not altogether do away with corruption, it is our fervent hope that it would be minimized even as party accountability to the people is reinforced.
While we endorse a parliamentary-federal government, we do not however quite believe – unlike many of our Pangasinan leaders, most of them the rich and the moneyed and influential -- in opening up wide the avenues for foreign ownership of our national patrimony and resources. This newspaper believes the 60-40 ratio for foreign ownership of major utilities and industries that exists today, more than being just a sense of nationalism, is a sense of reality.
Proponents of the lifting of that provision on national patrimony argue that if 90 or a hundred percent ownership is offered foreigners, more out-of-country investors would be lured to come in and thus start a surge of industries and utilities for the Philippines, one we have never seen before, pump-priming the economy. After all, the proponents add, we still have a “parliament” that can draw up the regulations and control for such foreign-owned utility enterprises on Philippine soil so as to prevent abuse and overexploitation.
That, we all know, is pipe dream. Given our track record as a country in enforcing our own laws and rules, we might as well be allowing the rape of our maids and sister and daughters inside the room while we keep fumbling for the keys to open the door and cursing to high heavens why we ever gave access to the strangers in our house at all.
That’s not imagination; that’s experience.
In all probability, and at the risk of going ahead of the honorable men and women of Congress, the country’s going to have a parliamentary-federal form and structure of government if not next year, then soon after.
This newspaper fully supports such a course. The presidential system of government has been self-destructing all this time and making elections of officials a big farce because of all the spending. While the parliamentary system might not altogether do away with corruption, it is our fervent hope that it would be minimized even as party accountability to the people is reinforced.
While we endorse a parliamentary-federal government, we do not however quite believe – unlike many of our Pangasinan leaders, most of them the rich and the moneyed and influential -- in opening up wide the avenues for foreign ownership of our national patrimony and resources. This newspaper believes the 60-40 ratio for foreign ownership of major utilities and industries that exists today, more than being just a sense of nationalism, is a sense of reality.
Proponents of the lifting of that provision on national patrimony argue that if 90 or a hundred percent ownership is offered foreigners, more out-of-country investors would be lured to come in and thus start a surge of industries and utilities for the Philippines, one we have never seen before, pump-priming the economy. After all, the proponents add, we still have a “parliament” that can draw up the regulations and control for such foreign-owned utility enterprises on Philippine soil so as to prevent abuse and overexploitation.
That, we all know, is pipe dream. Given our track record as a country in enforcing our own laws and rules, we might as well be allowing the rape of our maids and sister and daughters inside the room while we keep fumbling for the keys to open the door and cursing to high heavens why we ever gave access to the strangers in our house at all.
That’s not imagination; that’s experience.
