Miriam: JPEPA needs only one more vote
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/06/2008 6:17 PM
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The controversial free trade agreement between the Philippines and Japan needs only one more vote from a senator to ensure its ratification by the Senate.
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, said Wednesday that 14 senators have already signed the committee report recommending Senate concurrence with the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
“The required two-thirds vote of the Senate is only 15 senators, so we only need one more vote. That won’t be hard, because the issue of constitutionality has already been settled,” she said.
Two-thirds of the 24-seat Senate is 16. But it has only 23 members since former Senator Alfredo Lim became mayor of Manila in 2007. Senator Antonio Trillanes will not be able to cast his vote, which means only 15 votes are needed for ratification.
The 14 senators who have signed the committee report were: Santiago, Manuel Roxas, Edgardo Angara , Joker Arroyo, Juan Ponce Enrile, Richard Gordon, Manuel Lapid, Ramon Revilla, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Rodolfo Biazon, Loren Legarda, Jinggoy Estrada, Francis Pangilinan, and Aquilino Pimentel. All had reservations on the committee report except Angara and Enrile.
The 5 senators who did not sign were: Gregorio Honasan, Jamby Madrigal, Antonio Trillanes, Pia Cayetano, and Francis Escudero.
Other senators who may cast a vote on the floor are: Panfilo Lacson; Benigno Aquino III; Manuel Villar; Alan Peter Cayetano.
Exchange of notes
Santiago said Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura has already authorized Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Makoto Katsura to sign an exchange of notes with Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo that will commit both sides to say that the JPEPA should be consistent with the Philippine Constitution.
“The result of the exchange of notes will be that all Philippine constitutional provisions reserving certain economic activities to Filipinos and to corporations 60% Filipino owned shall prevail over JPEPA,” she said.
Santiago said the exchange of notes will "cancel the JPEPA provision that Japanese in our country would get 'national treatment' – meaning, the same treatment as Filipinos in investment activities."
“Our national patrimony and natural resources will remain safely in Filipino hands,” she said.
Santiago said many areas of economic activity will thus continue to be reserved to Filipinos, such as land ownership, use of natural resources, operation of public utilities, practice of all professions, ownership of schools, of mass media, of advertising industry, among others.
She said the exchange of notes has the same impact as a treaty.
“Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Art. 13, an exchange of notes in effect constitutes a treaty in itself, provided it states that the exchange shall have that effect,” Santiago, an international law expert, said.
Winners
She said JPEPA is the Philippines' "most important bilateral economic agreement in the last 50 years."
“Agriculture and exports will be the biggest winners. The treaty will immediately have a positive impact on farmers, fishermen, and food processors,” she said.
When JPEPA becomes effective, Santiago said 95% of RP exports to Japan will immediately enjoy zero duties.
"Japan has already concluded similar economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with Singapore, Mexico, Malaysia , Thailand, Chile, Brunei, and Indonesia,” she said.
Santiago said that the JPEPA may also lead to higher Japanese direct investments in the Philippines, which in 2002-2006 already amounted to US$938 million.
“Japan is our biggest source of official development assistance (ODA) which in 2006 already amounted to US$4.7 billion. With JPEPA, ODA will get even bigger,” she said.
RP exports to Japan may also reach $405 million or P559 billion by 2011 as a result of JPEPA, she said.
Santiago also belied allegations by environmentalists that the reduction in tariffs in wastes will lead to the entry of toxic and hazardous materials from Japan.
"Although there will be zero tariffs on 145 waste products, they cannot come in, because they are banned by R.A. No. 6969 on toxic wastes, and R.A. No.9003 on ecological solid wastes,” she said.
She also said that both countries are bound by the 2007 exchange of notes between the RP and Japanese foreign ministers, stating that “Japan would not be exporting wastes to RP, in accordance with the Basel Convention” on the control of transboundary moment of hazardous wastes.
