Congress leaders say that all they are interested in, by way of Charter change (Cha-cha) is an amendment to the economic provisions in the Constitution, evidently, through the claimed Joaquin Bernas’ Fourth Mode, whose constitutionality is questionable, since there are only two constitutionally approved modes to amend the Charter by Congress, while a third but limited mode of amending he Charter is through a people’s initiative.
Congressional leaders have vowed to block any and all moves to amend political provisions, which include the lifting of term limits.
But even as they vow to block such provisions, the same leaders must also know that they can’t possibly block any congressman or senator from coming up with his own Cha-cha bill that calls for amendments to the political provisos, and other provisions besides. Each senator, after all, is a republic unto himself. To block others could translate to losing that vote and three fourths vote is needed to pass such a measure.
Congressmen, being district-oriented rather than national issue-oriented, for their part, can’t be that interested in amending merely the economic provisions and will likely also propose other amendments outside of the economic topic.
If there is to be a three-fourths vote on the so-called economic amendments, the reason behind it could only be that the Palace resident has again greased their palms, which is normally done when the Palace wants its legislative measures passed, and without questions from Congress.
But even if such an amendment is passed by Congress with a three-fourths vote, this won’t stop others from challenging its constitutionality before the high court as the fourth mode is certainly a constitutionally infirm mode.
Also, it has to be stressed, again and again, that such a mode poses too much danger to the Constitution as any future amendments can easily come about merely through a legislative measure.
Say the Aquino Supreme Court when the flawed Fourth Mode is challenged, upholds it anyway, what can be expected in the near and far future?
What will stop a Congress, present and future, from again introducing yet another amendment, whether political or judicial? All that is needed, after all, is a legislative measure that has the three-fourths vote of  each House of Congress to amend any provision--piecemeal or in toto.
This is not to say that the Constitution, flawed as it is, should not be amended at all. That flawed Cory Constitution should have been amended long ago, but the amendments or revisions must be done the correct constitutional way, not the way the present Congress wants it done, because Congress is illegally and unconstitutionally amending the Constitution through the Fourth Mode and if the Aquino SC uphold this Fourth Mode, the high court too, will be illegally amending the Charter, since neither the high bench nor Congress is mandated by the Filipino people to amend any provision in the existing Charter.
It is the Filipino people, who, rightly or wrongly, ratified that flawed Cory Constitution. It will still have to be only the Filipino people who have that sovereign right to amend the Charter as they have mandated how the Charter should be amended.
Quite frankly, amending the economic provisions won’t bring about a deluge of foreign investments in the country, because foreign investments do not rely on the 60-40 sharing with locals. What they do rely on is a government that honors contracts even when inked with previous governments, as well as a climate of controlled peace and order. They also look for governments that do not change the rules of the game midstream.
Corruption, incidentally is something most investors live with — in any Asian country and all that talk from Noynoy that it is his daang matuwid that has brought in a deluge of foreign investments is all hot air.
In the first place, direct foreign investments have trickled in under the Noynoy administration, and have even been less than the previous years. In the second place, too many big and small companies in the country have either folded up or closed shop completely, mainly because power and labor costs have zoomed. And in the third place, the country’s labor force remains mostly focused on manual rather than labor working under an industrialized climate. Labor can be fairly unproductive here also.
Go ahead and have the Charter amended, but do it the right way.