|
OPPONENTS of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership
Agreement (Jpepa) chided President Arroyo’s pitch Monday
for the senators to approve the controversial treaty
when Congress resumes sessions next Monday.
The
Magkaisa Junk Jpepa Coalition (MJJC) said the senators
should be given ample time to study the committee report
before casting their crucial votes.
Sen.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago recently announced that the
committee report will be released on April 28.
As a
matter of procedure, the senators are usually given
ample time to study a committee report before it is
calendared for sponsorship on the floor.
Members
of the MJJC said it is important to give the other
senators time to study the report beforehand, as it is
their duty to raise questions and points of
interpellation to the sponsors, especially on a matter
of great impact to the nation, such as Jpepa.
The
Senate has yet to announce the date for the voting on
Jpepa. For the Jpepa to be ratified, 16 affirmative, or
yes, votes are needed.
MJJC,
which has been campaigning against the ratification of
the alleged lopsided treaty, described the ratification
of Jpepa as “a greater bitter poison for the public to
stomach.”
Guingona,
an outspoken nationalist who was among the so-called
Magnificent 12 senators who voted in 1991 to end the
RP-US military bases agreement, rallied the country’s
senators to resist the pressure to give their stamp of
approval on the tarnished pact.
“The
Senate should not be deceived by the specious benefits
of Jpepa that are being peddled by President Arroyo and
her adherents. The economic and financial gains that our
country is supposed to reap once the treaty is ratified
are purely speculative and lacking real merits as the
proceedings of the Senate hearings would show,” Guingona
said in a joint statement with MJJC, a multisectoral
movement campaigning for the rejection of the alleged
“flawed” treaty.
“Japan’s own study reveals that the Philippines is not
a priority destination for Japanese investments, at
least for the next three years, because of ‘inadequate
infrastructure, an underdeveloped legal system and
problems with legal operation,’ among others. Jpepa
won’t cure the reasons behind low foreign direct
investments, but it will definitely be a grand-scale
surrender of our rights as a sovereign people,” he
added.
Lawyer
Golda Benjamin, lead counsel of the MJJC, echoed
Guingona in cautioning about the much-ballyhooed profits
to be gained from Jpepa’s ratification. He expressed
hoped that the Senate will assert its institutional
independence and “fight for the sovereign interests of
the Filipino people.”
“The
President promises P365 billion in direct foreign
investments from Japan if Jpepa is signed, something not
found in the actual text of the treaty. Even if it was
in the treaty, we now ask: Is that the price for
Filipinos to violate our own Constitution, to surrender
our lands and seas, and even surrender the lawmaking
powers of Congress? If the President answers yes to that
question, we hope the Senate is brave enough to go
against it. Surely, this nation deserves leaders who can
say no to the illegal sale of Filipinos and their
rights,” Benjamin said.
Guingona
and Benjamin cited the 2007 survey on the international
operations of Japanese companies by the Japan External
Trade Organization (Jetro), a government-related agency,
which ranked the Philippines as last among 18 Japanese
investment destinations.
The same
survey showed the country as among the top five places
where there are many risks of doing business.
The
Jetro survey results, noted the MJJC, disprove what
President Arroyo said in her speech yesterday at the
Yazaki-Torres factory in Calamba City, where she
announced that Jpepa would bring in P365 billion in
direct investments and create over 200,000 jobs. |
