Santiago defers sponsorship of JPEPA
INQUIRER.net 04/28/2008
Santiago defers sponsorship of JPEPA
By Veronica Uy
MANILA, Philippines — It’s back to the negotiating table for the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) after Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Monday agreed to defer consideration of the treaty on the request of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.
Santiago postponed her sponsorship of a resolution calling for “conditional concurrence” of the treaty and said the pact might be taken up after the renegotiation, possibly in August.
Santiago, who chairs the Senate foreign relations committee, initially scheduled her sponsorship speech of the treaty on Monday, April 28.
She told reporters that, following an exchange of notes between Romulo and Japanese Ambassador to Manila Makoto Katsura, she will file a different resolution, this time calling for a simple concurrence of the treaty.
"The original treaty was not as complete and as binding in its language as it should have been. We just want to make sure at the very start that the loose language of JPEPA is tightened up so that we will avoid any possible cause of disagreement with the Japanese over its implementation," she said.
Santiago said the exchange of notes would contain the same 15 conditions in her proposed resolution for conditional concurrence to ensure that the treaty is "obedient" to the Philippine Constitution.
"Instead of conditional concurrence with 15 conditions, we have first an exchange of notes. This will simplify the JPEPA for the senators," she said.
In her response letter to Romulo dated April 28, copies of which were furnished reporters, Santiago said the deferment would allow the Department of Foreign Affairs "to explore the proper exchange of notes between the Philippines and Japan."
She said the exchange of notes will be presented to the Senate to form an "integral part" of the treaty during plenary debate on its concurrence.
The treaty, needs a two-thirds vote of the Senate to come into force, is controversial over its provisions allowing trade in trash and possible violations of the Constitution as it gives Japanese nationals the same privileges the Constitution gives only to Filipinos.
The JPEPA was signed in September 2006 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Helsinki. The Japanese parliament Diet ratified it later that year. The Philippine Senate’s concurrence is the only thing needed to bring it into force.
