VOTING 19-3-0, the Senate passed on third and final reading a bill that would open up the Philippines to more foreign investors by amending the 85-year-old Commonwealth Act 146 or the Public Service Act.
Senate Bill (SB) 2094 aims to ease the restrictions on foreign investments in public services, said Sen. Mary Grace Poe, chairman of the Committee on Public Services and sponsor of the measure.
Those who voted "no" for the approval of SB 2094, due to national security concerns among others, were Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Senators Francis, Pangilinan and Ana Theresia.
"The main purpose of this measure is to provide consumers with choices. And I believe that by opening our economy to a diverse set of investors, we could provide our fellow Filipinos with more and better choices," Poe said.
She also assured that SB 2094 contains safeguards to protect national security, which include prohibiting foreign state-owned enterprises from owning capital in any public service classified as critical infrastructure, and review of the foreign investments by the National Security Council.
President Rodrigo Duterte had certified the urgent approval of SB 2094 as economic managers said that it will help the Philippines recover from the impacts of the pandemic, and improve its standing in mobilizing more foreign capital to the country.
SB 2094, according to Poe, provides a clearer definition of the terms "public services" and "public utilities" in the existing law.
In the 1987 Constitution, only corporations that are at least 60-percent owned by Filipinos should be given the franchise, certificate and authorization to operate as a public utility.
Under the bill, public utility refers to a "public service that operates, manages or controls for public use" any of the following: distribution or transmission of electricity; petroleum and petroleum products pipeline distribution systems, water pipelines distribution systems and wastewater pipeline systems; as well as airports, seaports, public utility vehicles and tollways or expressways.
Those not classified as a public utility "shall otherwise be considered as a public service, which will not be bound by the restriction on foreign ownership," Poe said.
Public services include telecommunications, air carriers, domestic shipping, railways and subways.
"We need to be forward-looking and not be hampered by some of our mistrust and fears," Poe told her colleagues before the bill's second reading approval on Tuesday.
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