A Memo for President Aquino
If indeed President Benigno S. Aquino III accepts the invitation from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to visit Brussels this year (More Foreign Trips for Aquino Next Year. Philippine Star. December 2011) we would like to suggest at least two main items that President Noynoy or PNoy can take up with Mr. Barroso.
1. Investor to State Arbitration- PNoy should ask the EC president how far the EU would like to push its investment agenda in future talks with the Philippines for a free trade or economic partnership agreement. Aquino should inquire whether the EU would insist on an ambitious investment chapter that would afford corporations the right to sue governments and bring claims under non-transparent international investment tribunals? Pnoy may want to bring up at this point the pending cases filed by European corporations against the Philippines under the International Court for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). He may want to remind Barroso that in the Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide v. Republic of the Philippines (ICSID Case No. ARB/03/25) which the court ruled in favor of the Philippines on account of lack of jurisdiction but at a cost to Philippine coffers of a whopping US$50 million in legal fees. Incidentally just so Mr. Barroso understands the significance of that amount of money to a country like the Philippines, President Aquino can point out at this point that the budget released by the government for relief and rehabilitation of areas devastated by recent typhoon Sendong of around P860 million amounts to less than 40% of the money spent by government just to defend itself against a claim by a European corporation. As an aside, Aquino may also want to mention that Fraport has revived its claim against the Philippines in the amount of US$425 million. Pnoy might as well discuss with Barroso, since they would probably be meeting in the EU capital Brussels, the pending case filed by Belgian contractor Baggerwerken Decloedt En Zoon (BDC) NV over the cancellation by his administration of a contract for the dredging and rehabilitation Laguna de Bay. BDC is claiming US$65 million as compensation for the cancellation of the contract.
2. Intellectual Property Rights and Access to Medicines – Aquino may want to ask Barroso as well whether the EU would insist on pushing its agenda for highly restrictive intellectual property rights (IPR) regime in a future FTA or EPA with the Philippines? Aquino may want to ask whether the EU would honor its commitment to the Doha Declaration on Public Health in the World Trade Organization which recognizes the right of developing countries like the Philippines to exercise flexibilities in the implementation of IPR obligations under the WTO-Trade related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement? President PNoy may also want to remind the EC president at this point that his administration is committed to implement fully the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008 (RA 9502) otherwise known as the Cheaper Medicines Law as part of his administration’s strategy outlined in the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016 (PDP) to make sure that “No Filipino will be denied health care, even those without the means to pay.”
Our two centavos worth,
Joseph Purugganan
Focus on the Global South/EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network
19 Maginhawa Street, UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City
josephp@focusweb.org
