Groups calls on senators to reject the conditional concurrence for JPEPA

Miami
April 27, 2008
Story 2: Groups calls on senators to reject the conditional concurrence for JPEPA

Magkaisa JUNK JPEPA coalition is calling the attention of the Senators not to approved the resolution that Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago is recommending.

Santiago, Chair of the Senate committee on Foreign Relations is said to have been asking her colleagues to issue a “conditional concurrence” on the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). The Mgkaisa JUNK JPEPA, composed of different groups against it, said they do not totally agree on the said “conditional concurrence.”

On their statement, the group said, “Conditional Concurrence. To say that even if the JPEPA is unconstitutional, unfair and discriminatory, the senators must still cast a vote of approval because maybe, just maybe, Japan will agree to the Philippines’ attempt to “fix” the problems of this agreement.”

For the group the “fix” would mean to fix only the talks with regards to the constitutional problems of the agreement, but it will disregards the unfairness of the deal and discriminatory provisions of the treaty.

Esther de Tagle, representative from Green Convergence expressed her views on the “conditional concurrence” she said, “With the JPEPA treaty, Japan will have the liberty to dispatch to our country all the things that they do not want anymore. We should take care of our biodiversity.”

She even said that the Philippines is very rich with natural resources and why let other country like Japan explore to the country’s own resources. The group even considers if the JPEPA will be ratified, it will only means that the Philippines is being sold to Japan.

The group said the government is insisting that the Philippines already left behind by other Asian countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore that already had agreement with Japan. But the Magkaisa Junk JPEPA said it will be better to be left behind than continue with a questionable treaty. “If with other country the treaty seems to be ok with them, so be it, why should we imitate them?” Tagle asked.

For the fishermen, they are also not in favour of the JPEPA, saying that they will be very much affected once it will be ratified. “Fishermen will be very much affected because the Japanese will have the rights to fish in our seas, with their technology and equipments our fishermen will lost to them. They will also be able to fish some of the endangered species in our territorial seas. Nothing will left to our own fishermen.” Uper Aleroza said, representative from Kilusang Mangingisda.

“The Senate cannot also take the chances with the lives of poor people with the little benefits that JPEPA promises,” Aleroza added.

The group also said that they received reports that the proposed resolution of Senator Santiago will be tackled at the plenary on Monday, during the Senate’s session. “We call on the Senators to stand for the Filipino people. To defend this country. To have the courage to reject an unconstitutional, unfair, and discriminatory deal peddled by the Executive Branch.”

With Senator Santiago’s moved to have “conditional concurrence” on the JPEPA treaty, the group thinks this is merely an admission that the JPEPA has a defect and they think the best way to do it is to reject it and not to ratify or make any conditions just for the sake of having this treaty on the country.