{"id":230302,"date":"2019-09-10T19:38:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T23:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=230302"},"modified":"2019-09-10T19:38:45","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T23:38:45","slug":"no-conflict-between-fdi-national-security-poe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/10\/no-conflict-between-fdi-national-security-poe\/","title":{"rendered":"No conflict between FDI, national security: Poe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: AMENDING PSA. Senator Grace Poe discusses the proposed amendment to PSA of 1936 to allow FDI in the telecommunications, transportation, and multimedia industries during the BusinessWorld Industry 4.0 Summit in Taguig on Monday (Sept. 9). (Photo by Raymond Carl Dela Cruz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Increasing foreign direct investments (FDI) and promoting national security are not conflicting goals, Senator Grace Poe said, as she called for more competitive industries through an amended Public Service Act (PSA) of 1936.<\/p>\n

In her speech at the BusinessWorld Industry 4.0 Summit in Taguig City, Poe said opening the telecommunications (telco), transportation, and multimedia industries to FDI \u2014 currently limited to 60 percent Filipino ownership, 40 percent foreign ownership \u2014 would help create more competitive prices and better goods and services through the entry of more competition in these markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut some critics say\u2014this is the roadblock here\u2014there are other public services which are critical and the entry of foreigners in these industries could pose threats to national security,\u201d Poe said.<\/p>\n

She said\u00a0\u201cthreats\u201d include potential foreign control of telco services, and allowing entry of foreign ships through relaxed maritime cabotage laws, or the relaxation of the restriction to local transport services within the country\u2019s waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the US restricts also the entry of foreign vessel in their waterways. Even Japan or other countries. So, our local maritime industry is a little wary of this public service act,\u201d Poe said.<\/p>\n

She said included in their proposed amendment to the PSA are the National Security Council\u2019s power to review FDIs and the President\u2019s ability to \u201csuspend or prohibit an FDI transaction if it involves critical infrastructure that threatens to impair the national security of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the amendment, Poe said they expect the number of industry players, capital investments, and competition to be enhanced.<\/p>\n

\u201cKasi kung may<\/em>\u00a0competition, kung nakikipag-paligsahan, mas bababa ang presyo, mas gagalingan mo ang serbisyo para ikaw ang piliin<\/em>\u00a0(Because if there is competition, if there\u2019s a contest, there will be lower prices, you\u2019ll provide better service so you\u2019ll be chosen). There is an intrinsic relationship between competition and innovation,\u201d Poe said.<\/p>\n

Once passed, the amended PSA would change the definition of public utilities to only include distribution and transmission of electricity, water pipeline distribution systems, and sewerage pipeline systems\u2014enabling more FDI in industries not included in this definition.<\/p>\n

Last Sept. 4, the House of Representatives began tackling in the plenary House Bill (HB) No. 78, which would amend the PSA, following approval from the House Committee on Economic Affairs on Aug. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 Increasing foreign direct investments (FDI) and promoting national security are not conflicting goals, Senator Grace Poe said, as she …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":230304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230305,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230302\/revisions\/230305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}