JPEPA ratification easier with supplemental accord
Efren L. Danao
Manila Times
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said Wednesday that the Senate ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) would no longer be difficult if it is accompanied by a supplemental agreement.
Santiago, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said that legal questions raised against the JPEPA would be stilled once the government comes out with the supplemental agreement containing Philippine reservations for future preferential, protective or development measures over Japanese investments.
She is confident that with the supplemental agreement, there would be no need to renegotiate the JPEPA. The Japanese government is not expected to renegotiate with the ratification of the JPEPA by the Diet, the Japanese parliament.
“This would also prevent the JPEPA from being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court,” she said.
She said that some University of the Philippines law professors have finished drafting a petition for certiorari questioning the constitutionality of the JPEPA before the Supreme Court.
“It would be a great embarrassment for the government and for the Senate if the JPEPA is declared unconstitutional,” she said.
She warned that the treaty as presently worded would be declared unconstitutional without the reservations contained in a supplemental agreement.
She said that a new round of negotiations with Japan is not needed to come up with the supplemental agreement.
“All that has to be done is for the Philippine government to submit to Japan its reservations and for Japan to agree with them,” she said.
The foreign relations committee, along with the committee on trade, had six public hearings on the JPEPA. The seventh will be held this Friday but with Sen. Mar Roxas of the trade committee presiding because Santiago will resume her campaign for a seat in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The 15-man ICJ has five permanent members with the 10 remaining members elected by region. Santiago is running for the seat allotted to the Asian region and is the region’s lone candidate.
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