President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s leadership brand quickly prevailed over the divisive voices of bribes, threats, and disinformation.

The greater wisdom of the President, most especially concerning the good of the Filipino people, must have driven him last week to meet with Speaker Martin Romualdez and suggest that the Senate take the lead in the discussions on economic provisions of the Constitution, then approve it under a resolution, which the House can adopt.

The presidential suggestion was met with enthusiastic approval by the heads of both houses of Congress.

That was how PBBM’s leadership brand quickly prevailed over the divisive voices of bribes, threats, and disinformation after the heads of both houses of Congress embraced the President’s suggestion enthusiastically.

What transpired erased the prevailing notion that the Senate and the President were against Charter change or Cha-cha. What came out was that, if ever there should be any idea about amending specific provisions of the Charter, the Head of State and the Senate want it done properly, along the rules of bicameralism of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, with the latter taking the lead.

Most importantly, there should be no other provisions or amendments on anything, but only purely on the economic provisions.

The Senate will start discussions on amendments this month to end in March. The Senate needs three-fourths, or 18, of the votes of its 24 members to approve the measure that the House will adopt.

“We do not want to waste the foreign investment pledges announced by the President and the Department of Trade and Industry,” said Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri.

PBMM’s vision is clear: promote the New Philippines and improve the economic and social well-being of the New Filipino in all areas of the country.

The President had to act quickly and decisively because of the following reality:

The overwhelming optimism of the nation for an economic boom in 2024, which has been driven by the fruits of President Marcos’ foreign travels to promote investments in the country, will come to naught if Congress fails to consider properly passing key reforms, including constitutional ones, which will be crucial to realizing the dreams of the President for the greatest good of the most significant number of the New Filipino.

President Marcos’ foreign travels have resulted in P1.16 trillion in investment approvals at the Board of Investment. This may go to waste if Congress fails to pass critical reforms to attain the ultimate purpose for the huge pledges obtained by the President.

Meanwhile, we are waiting for the constitutional antidote to meet the urgency ahead, especially the settlement of the government’s total external debt of $117.9 billion as of June 30, 2023.

First, there is an urgent need to improve the government’s fiscal position by revising revenue collection targets upward, considering the implementation of tax measures that are being prioritized in the medium term.

Among these are the two remaining fiscal reform measures under the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, or CTRP, that never got through the previous Congress.

The first is the Reform Package 3, or the Real Property Valuation and Assessment. The draft committee report is pending in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The counterpart version was already approved on the third reading at the House of Representatives in December last year, and Package 4 of the CTRP on Passive Income and Financial Intermediaries Taxation Act, which aims to simplify the complicated tax structure of financial transactions and deepen the capital markets of the Philippines.

(To be continued)