National security risks of pro-China and anti-Filipino economic policy

[Oringally posted on Facebook on October 30, 2020]

Duterte's House of Representatives and his Cabinet illegally attempt to ignore, reject and dishonor the 1987 Constitution in their despicable desire to accommodate Chinese investors, despite the serious national security risks that such a pro-China and anti-Filipino policy engenders.

A few months ago, the House adopted an unconstitutional bill on public utilities that contradicted the pro-Filipino provisions of the Constitution.

This week, according to news reports, Duterte's Department of Energy opened the geothermal industry to corporations with one hundred percent (100%) foreign ownership, notwithstanding the provisions of the Constitution to the contrary.

By way of review, it should be noted that Section 2, Article XII (National Economy and Patrimony), of the 1987 Constitution, inter alia, provides, as follows:

1. All LANDS OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, WATERS, MINERALS, coal, PETROLEUM, AND OTHER MINERAL OILS, ALL FORCES OF POTENTIAL ENERGY, FISHERIES, FORESTS OR TIMBER, WILDLIFE, FLORA AND FAUNA, AND OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES ARE OWNED BY THE STATE.

2. With the exception of AGRICULTURAL LANDS, ALL OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES SHALL NOT BE ALIENATED.

3. The EXPLORATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND UTILIZATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES shall be under the FULL CONTROL AND SUPERVISION OF THE STATE.

4. The State may directly undertake such activities, or it may enter into CO-PRODUCTION, JOINT VENTURE, OR PRODUCTION-SHARING AGREEMENTS with FILIPINO CITIZENS, OR CORPORATIONS OR ASSOCIATIONS AT LEAST 60 PER CENTRUM OF WHOSE CAPITAL IS OWNED BY SUCH CITIZENS.

5. Such agreements may be for a period not exceeding TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, RENEWABLE FOR NOT MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, and under such terms and conditions AS MAY PROVIDED BY LAW.

6. In cases of WATER RIGHTS FOR IRRIGATION, WATER SUPPLY, FISHERIES, OR INDUSTRIAL USES other than the development of waterpower, BENEFICIAL USE may be the measure and limit of the grant.

7. The State shall PROTECT the nations MARINE WEALTH in its ARCHIPELAGIC WATERS, TERRITORIAL SEA, AND EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE, and RESERVE its use and enjoyment EXCLUSIVELY TO FILIPINO CITIZENS.

8. The Congress may, by law, allow SMALL-SCALE UTILIZATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES BY FILIPINO CITIZENS, as well as cooperative fish farming, with PRIORITY TO SUBSISTENCE FISHERMEN AND FISH WORKERS in rivers, lakes, bays, and lagoons.

9. The President may enter into AGREEMENTS WITH FOREIGN-OWNED CORPORATIONS involving either TECHNICAL OR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR LARGE-SCALE EXPLORATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND UTILIZATION OF MINERALS, PETROLEUM, AND OTHER MINERAL OILS according to the general terms and conditions PROVIDED BY LAW, based on REAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GENERAL WELFARE OF THE COUNTRY.

10. In such agreements, the State shall promote the development and use of LOCAL SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL RESOURCES.

11. The President shall SHALL NOTIFY CONGRESS OF EVERY CONTRACT entered into in accordance with this provision, WITHIN THIRTY DAYS FROM ITS EXECUTION.

We all know that the Constitution provides that only Filipino citizens or Filipino corporations (sixty percent Filipino ownership) may own lands in the Philippines.

The exceptions are land ownership via heriditary succession (inheritance) and land ownership by former natural-born Filipinos who have lost their Filipino citizenship because they have been naturalized citizens abroad (subject to the limitations and conditions fixed by law).

Further, it should be noted that Section 3 of the same Article XII, inter alia, provides, as follows:

1. ALIENABLE lands of the public domain shall be limited to AGRICULTURAL LANDS.

2. PRIVATE CORPORATIONS OR ASSOCIATIONS may NOT HOLD such alienable lands of the public domain EXCEPT BY LEASE, for a period not exceeding TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, RENEWABLE FOR NOT MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, and not to exceed ONE THOUSAND HECTARES in area.

3. CITIZENS of the Philippines may LEASE not more than FIVE HUNDRED HECTARES, or ACQUIRE not more than TWELVE HECTARES thereof, by PURCHASE, HOMESTEAD, OR GRANT.

4. Taking into account the requirements of conservation, ecology, and development, and subject to the requirements of agrarian reform, the CONGRESS shall DETERMINE, BY LAW, the SIZE OF LAND OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN which may be ACQUIRED, DEVELOPED, HELD, OR LEASED and the CONDITIONS THEREFOR.

In closing, the sworn constitutional duty of the heads and members of the three independent branches of the government (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary) is to honor, uphold and enforce the letter and spirit of the Constitution and the laws implementing its provisions.

The Constitution represents the soul and the very identity of the nation.

The Executive who violates the Constitution must be impeached.

He and his co-conspirators in his Cabinet must be criminally prosecuted and punished by the sovereign Filipino people.

The members of the Judiciary (Supreme Court), which is supposed to be the last institutional bulwark of the rule of law in the country, who violate the Constitution by promulgating grossly unjust, illegal and unconstitutional doctrines, pronoucmenets, decisions and resolutions must likewise be impeached and criminally prosecuted and punished by the sovereign Filipino people.

The members of the pork barrel-fed and dynasties-infested Legislative (aka the congress of crocodiles) who violate the Constitution by adopting clearly unjust, corrupt and unconstitutional laws and resolutions must be condemned and rejected in the elections and criminally prosecuted and punished by the sovereign Filipino people.