Published January 21, 2021, 12:51 AM
There seems to be wide agreement about the need to open the country’s economy to greater foreign investment. But the private business sector along with some government economic officials are for doing this via several pending economic bills, while the country’s politicians are for amending the Philippine Constitution to do it.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, generally known as the voice of Philippine business, said there are already several pending economic reform bills in Congress. There is the Public Service Amendment, already approved by the House of Representatives and now pending in the Senate Committee on Public Services, which would lift limitations on foreign equity ownership in some sectors currently classified as public utilities, including telecommunications and transport. It would limit the term “public utility” to three sectors – distribution of electricity, transmis