Fight Back News Service is circulating the following January 25, 2013 statement by the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the interventionism of US big capitalists in pushing for amendments to the 1987 Philippine constitution that would remove provisions defining limits to foreign ownership of Philippine enterprises.

The proposal to amend the 1987 constitution was expressed by American big businessmen in a meeting yesterday with Aquino in Malacañang. The American capitalists recently attended a forum and tour of the Philippines initiated by the US-Philippines Society co-sponsored by the Aquino government and the US embassy to attract US capitalists to invest in the Philippines.

Among those who attended the forum were executives of Citigroup, Chevron, Coca Cola, General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Peregrine Development International, CV Starr & Co., the US Education Finance Group, McLarty & Associates, Federal Express and Spence & Co.

The CPP castigated the Aquino regime for allowing the US big capitalists to outrightly interfere in the internal political affairs of the country. “This is not the first time that the Aquino regime has kept silent as the US imperialists stepped beyond the boundaries of diplomatic relations and directly interfered in the internal socio-political affairs of the country by pushing for charter change,” points out the CPP.

In 2011, US Ambassador Harry Thomas similarly called for amendments to the Philippine 1987 constitution. The US big business group echoed the view expressed by Thomas that lifting the restrictions against foreign ownership should be a requirement for the Philippines to join the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “free trade” group. Aquino has long expressed interest to join the TPP but has yet to be invited by the group.

“The US imperialists have long been pushing for charter change in order to completely remove the provisions that restrict foreign ownership to 40%,” said the CPP. “American big capitalists are confronted with a prolonged depression of the global capitalist system and wish to further entrench themselves in the Philippines and be given unrestricted freedom to invest, extract mineral and other natural resources, exploit cheap Filipino labor and earn and repatriate their superprofits.”

The CPP said that even with the restrictions against majority foreign ownership of Philippine enterprises, American and other foreign big capitalists have long been allowed vast freedoms to operate fully-owned corporations, or use dummies, under various investment and economic laws over the past three decades, including the Mining Act of 1995, the Omnibus Investments Act and many others.

“The US imperialists also want to remove provisions in the 1987 constitution restricting the entry and stockpiling of nuclear weapons as well as those prohibiting foreign military bases and facilities, in order to further use the Philippines as its military outpost and advanced detachment in the Asia-Pacific region,” added the CPP.

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