House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco has instructed the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments to open the discussions on amending the restrictive economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, as stated within Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 2 that he authored.

Velasco said that when he filed RBH 2 in July 2019, the Philippines was poised to become one of the fastest growing economies in Asia. The World Bank gave the country a projection of 6.6 percent GDP growth in the years 2020 and 2021. But “no one could have predicted the onset of a global pandemic, along with the devastation it has brought upon the economies around the world,” he said.

To set the stage for the country’s economic recovery, Congress passed the P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021, which includes a P72.5-billion appropriation for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines for Filipinos. Likewise, Congress extended the availability of funds appropriated through the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or Bayanihan 2 and the 2020 General Appropriations Act to help the country recover from the pandemic.

“As global economies slowly start to reopen, we cannot allow the Philippines to lag behind in terms of investments and opportunities. We need to seize the momentum if we are to fully recover from the economic devastation of COVID-19,” Velasco said.