By Christine F. Herrera

Proponents of Charter change have found new allies to press on with their proposal to revise the 1987 Constitution.

At the hearing conducted by the House committee on constitutional amendments, four academicians pushed the revision of the Constitution, which they said is ?as urgent as the economic crisis.?

The academicians contradicted Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who moved for a deferment of Charter change hearings to give lawmakers time to concentrate on other compelling economic issues.

?But Charter change is as urgent as the economic crisis that needs to be confronted now,? professor Alex Magno of the University of the Philippines political science department told the hearing.

Dr. Gerardo Pasion Sicat, development economist of the UP school of economics, warned against postponing the revisions efforts because the country is ?missing out? on the ?easy access to foreign capital? for financial development.

Magno said the Philippines has $3 trillion worth of mineral deposits that the ?anomalous Constitution? hinders the government from being tapped for progress.

?Our country has $3 trillion worth of mineral deposits. We lose opportunities to capitalize on mineral exploitation, education, agriculture and the cost mounts each day. The anomalous Constitution has become the main hindrance to economic progress as a country and as a people,? Magno said.

Mining is capital intensive, which the government did not have but foreign investors could well provide, Magno said. ?Abundance and progress can be had if we amend the Constitution now. We have to seriously rethink the position to postpone the efforts for Charter amendments.?

Magno, an active proponent of the People?s Initiative for Reforms, Modernization and Action in 1997, said he was told to defer the issue until 1998.

?It is now 2009 and we have yet to confront the issue but we have been missing out on opportunities to realize the wealth we have,? Magno emphasized.

Magno and Sicat, along with Dr. Antonio La Vina, dean of Ateneo school of government, and Jose Leviste, chairman of the Philippine Business Leaders? Forum, said the economic restrictions such as Sections 2 and 3 of the Constitution?s Article 12 on foreign land owners and land control have become the stumbling block to the Philippines? progress.

Sicat argued that while the Filipinos do not allow foreigners to own a land here, Filipinos in the United States, for instance, are allowed to own lands and the laws apply equally on them and its own citizens.