CLAIMING that the various lease and agribusiness agreements entered into by the government with Beijing lacks transparency and reciprocity, militant legislators pressed the House of Representatives to investigate the deals for possible legal and constitutional infirmities.

Party-list Reps. Risa Hontiveros of Akbayan, Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna and Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela filed House Resolutions 79, 224 and 237, respectively, expressing concern over these agreements’ implications on food security, economic stability and the country’s overall national sovereignty.

The legislators said that besides lacking in transparency and reciprocity, the deals tend to be favorable to the interest of China to the detriment of the Filipino people.

“These agreements pose a serious threat to the country’s agrarian-reform program,” Hontiveros said.

She cited one contract that allows the lease of 1 million hectares of land to a Chinese corporation for 25 years without specifying the nature of the lands.

Hontiveros said the crops to be produced on these lands are only for export to China, rendering the country’s food supply vulnerable.

It was learned that there were 31 memoranda of agreement (MOAs) signed by the government and China including with some private Chinese corporations all for the promotion of bilateral trade and development in agriculture, fisheries and other food- production ventures.

In House Resolution 224, the legislators said: “Included are questionable financial grants and concession loans, the removal of some protective barriers on trade, a 25-year lease of more than 1 million hectares of agricultural lands—whose produce will be exported to China —and, the utilization of lands for biofuel production intended for that country’s consumption.”

They said that based on a report of the Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (Ideals) Inc., the 31 agreements cover a broad range of obligations, with some of them perceived to be anomalous.

Quoting Arnel Mateo of Ideals, the legislators said at the joint meeting of the committee on agriculture and food and agrarian reform that the lack of transparency, consultation and people’s participation are the reasons these contracts are perceived to be anomalous.

Mateo said the contracts are in direct violation of the 1987 constitutional provision on patrimony, which stipulates that no foreign-owned corporation can lease agricultural lands of public domain exceeding 1 million hectares.

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House probe on RP-China deals sought

CLAIMING that the various lease and agribusiness agreements entered into by the government with Beijing lacks transparency and reciprocity, militant legislators pressed the House of Representatives to investigate the deals for possible legal and constitutional infirmities.