MANILA, PHILIPPINES - FOREIGN businessmen were warned on Friday to 'get out' of the Philippines if they don't like how business is done here after overseas commerce groups questioned proposed changes to electricity law.

Representatives from six foreign chambers of commerce were called to the Senate to explain why they wrote a joint letter to President Gloria Arroyo last month over reforms to the power sector.

'To them I say the hell with you, get out of this country. Enough is enough,' a visibly angry Senator Juan Ponce Enrile said, after addressing the heads of the business groups.

'Who are these people coming here saying 'You do this you do that'? he told representatives from the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Europe, Japan and South Korea.

In the letter dated May 27, the joint foreign chambers advised the government against reversing the policies of deregulation and privatisation in the power sector, saying these will help improve the country's competitiveness.

But Enrile told the businessmen: 'You have a responsibility to your pocket but we as politicians have a responsibility to our people. We're not serving you, we are serving our nation and our people. You're only guests in our country so behave like guests.'

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, head of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (PowerCom), also expressed annoyance as she opened Friday's hearing.

'It is misguided to think that if you write a letter to the President the Senate will immediately sweep everything off the table and stop what it is doing,' she added.

Hubert Diaboville, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, however, said the group was not out to lecture the Senate.

'Let us assure you that there was no offence meant,' he said reading from a statement.

He said the foreign chambers, which have some 2,000 members and employs more than one million people in the Philippines, 'only want a competitive and stable business environment'.