NI NOEL ABUEL
Napipilitang umiwas sa Pilipinas ang mga dayuhang mamumuhunan dahil sa mahigpit na foreign ownership restrictions sa Konstitusyon.
Ito ang sinabi ni Palawan Rep. Jose Alvarez, PDP-Laban president, sa pulong balitaan sa Kamara, kung saan nakausap umano nito ang Korean ambassador sa Manila at nagsabing sa 343 Korean investors, 3 lamang ang nagdesisyong mag-invest sa Pilipinas.
“’Yung 340 went to Vietnam. Hindi ba sapat na buksan na natin ‘yung economy kasi kulelat na nga tayo sa buong ASEAN,” ani Alvarez.
Aniya, hindi sapat ang mga kamakailang batas sa liberalisasyon na ipinasa ng Kongreso tulad ng inamiyendahang Public Service Act para makaakit ng mga dayuhang mamumuhunan.
“’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,” giit nito.
“Hindi ‘yung i-open-up mo lang ‘yung economy, Retail Trade Law, ‘yung Public Service Act, e kulang pa iyon e. Hindi sapat,” dagdag ng kongresista.
Samantala, ikinumpara naman ni Aklan Rep. Teodorico Haresco Jr. ang Pilipinas sa China sa usapin ng paglalagak ng negosyo.
“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,” sabi ni Haresco.
Inihalimbawa pa nito ang isang Filipino-Chinese businessman na gumagawa ng snack food sa ilalim ng tatak na Oishi at nagpapatakbo ng mga pabrika sa bansa at sa 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,” paliwanag ni Haresco.
“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,” dagdag nito.
Sinabi ni Haresco na maraming beses nang binago ng Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, ng ASEAN ang kanilang Konstitusyon upang makaakit ng dayuhang kapital.
“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,” giit nito.
OnlineBalita news 