(The Manila Times) AS the country struggles to recover from the pandemic’s economic impact, neophyte Sen. Robinhood Padilla on Tuesday, July 12 vowed to prioritize economic reforms over federalism if he finally gets the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes when the 19th Congress opens its regular session on July 25.

“If I finally get the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, I will prioritize tackling the economic reforms. Without economic reforms in the Constitution, no system or form of government [will prosper],” Padilla said in a text message.

“We cannot recover. We need foreign direct investments (FDI). We have to do it now before it’s late,” he added.

The Philippines ranks 4th out of 84 countries in the FDI regulatory restrictiveness index by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.