AS the Senate resumed its sessions Monday, independent think tank IBON Foundation again urged senators to reject the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa), saying that the P365 billion in investments that the deal will supposedly bring is too high a price to pay for the death of the local manufacturing sector.

As it is, the long-term liberalization of the economy has further weakened the country’s manufacturing base. But the implementation of the Jpepa, and the free-trade pacts that will inevitably follow in its wake, would end any chance of improving the local manufacturing sector and will permanently reduce it to being a mere assembler of imported inputs for reexport.

This trend is already evident in recent export figures from the National Statistics Office, which showed that industries which use imported raw materials or assembled parts have overtaken those sourcing chiefly domestic raw materials.

IBON research head Sonny Africa said the trade liberalization brought by the Jpepa would further worsen the already dire situation of the country’s manufacturing sector.

The “national treatment” and “most-favored-nation” provisions in the free-trade pact would prevent the country from imposing policies to help local manufacturers, such as restrictions on imported products and local content requirements.

Africa pointed out that the Jpepa is merely a way for Japan to promote the interests of its transnational corporations along with their local elite partners.

Japanese electronics companies already dominate the local electronics-manufacturing export industry, with the four biggest companies accounting for over P210 billion in gross revenues as of 2006, he said.

Instead of passing exploitative free- trade pacts like the Jpepa, Africa said the government should instead implement national industrialization policies, which would lead to the creation of millions of much-needed permanent jobs and the country’s long-term economic development.

WITH barely two months left to decide on the fate of the Comprehensive Agrarian-Reform Program (CARP), agrarian-reform advocates warned that hunger and poverty may worsen should Congress fail to pass a bill funding the program’s extension for another 5 to 10 years.

IF the country seems to be running out of economic steam due to the global growth slowdown and soaring commodity prices, the Philippines, like many other developing countries, still has an ace to play in global trade, according to the United Nations Trade and Development (Unctad).

AS the Senate resumed its sessions Monday, independent think tank IBON Foundation again urged senators to reject the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa), saying that the P365 billion in investments that the deal will supposedly bring is too high a price to pay for the death of the local manufacturing sector.

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced the appointment of a new country director for its Philippine Country office this month.

The militant farmers belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Tuesday rejected Sen. Edgardo Angara’s proposal to privatize the National Food Authority (NFA) owing to the agency’s failure to address the rice crisis.

THE Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Friday convened industry stakeholders and other government agencies in crafting a National Land Transport Policy Framework (NLTPF).

DAVAO CITY—Philippine Airlines would add another Airbus flight to this city beginning Thursday to decongest the volume of traffic in this route that has built up since the Holy Week holidays.