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AFTER
finding legal flaws in the controversial
Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa),
the Senate has given Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto
Romulo time to work out a side agreement with the
Japanese government to cure those flaws.
Thus,
sponsorship speeches for the bilateral economic pact
have been placed on hold, and the interlude is expected
to give opponents of the Jpepa time to line up more
protest activities.
Also
avoided, in the meantime, were the expected marathon
floor debates after the sponsorship speeches that should
have been scheduled for Monday’s afternoon session. Sens.
Miriam Santiago, foreign-relations committee chairman,
and Mar Roxas II, trade and commerce committee chairman,
are endorsing the Jpepa’s ratification despite its
“defects.”
Santiago
had earlier drafted a foreign-affairs committee
resolution recommending that the Senate give its
“conditional concurrence” provided Japan commits to
comply with at least 15 specific provisions of the
Philippine Constitution.
These
include, Santiago said, existing constitutional
provisions that were not clearly resolved in the Jpepa
covering public health, protection of Filipino
enterprises, ownership of public lands and use of
natural resources, ownership of inalienable public
lands, ownership of private lands, reservation of
certain areas of investment to Filipinos, giving
preference in the national economy and patrimony to
Filipinos, regulation of foreign investments, operation
of public utilities, preferential use of Filipino labor
and materials, practice of professions, ownership of
educational institutions, state regulation of transfer
of technology, ownership of mass media and ownership of
advertising firms.
Roxas
said, on the other hand, that he was ready to vote for
ratification despite the misgivings aired by
Santiago
on the constitutional issues, because he fears a trade
backlash that could heavily burden the Philippines.
He will
not campaign among his colleagues for ratification,
however, but will leave it to Malacańang to “round up”
15 other senators to muster the two-thirds vote required
to ratify the agreement. Aside from Roxas, only Sens.
Edgardo Angara and Richard Gordon have declared
readiness to vote for Jpepa, and the others said they
would wait for the floor debates to clarify the issues
before making up their minds.
Secretary Romulo has begun his initiative and wrote
Santiago on Friday informing her of these renewed
efforts to get a side agreement with Japan addressing
the legal issues she raised.
Santiago
had also raised the probability the Supreme Court may
declare the Jpepa unconstitutional due to its legal
defects; thus, her draft of a conditional concurrence in
order to explicitly safeguard the Charter provisions and
avoid a postenactment challenge in the high tribunal.
Until
Sunday,
Santiago’s office had given no fixed date on when the sponsorship
speeches on Jpepa would finally push through. She
earlier indicated there was no need to rush. “It will
not be a tragedy. It will not result in the extinction
of the planet if we don’t ratify Jpepa.
Japan
cannot afford to have an economic regime in Asia
completely excluding the Philippines,” said Santiago
last week.
Santiago
added, “So, if we have a misunderstanding—which I hope
not—about this issue on constitutional provisions on the
part of the Philippines, I am very sure that just next
year or maybe two years later, Japan and the Philippines
will be sitting down at the conference table again to
negotiate a new Jpepa version.”
At least
three other senators—Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Juan Ponce
Enrile and Francis Escudero—who are lawyers like
Santiago, also have serious doubts. The three said the
Senate should simply vote to ratify or reject the
agreement since the Senate is barred from amending the
defective accord. |
