JPEPA’S advantages and disadvantages

Conveners and activists from the NO DEAL! Movement, joined by anti-JPEPA advocates from the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) and the La Sallian Justice and Peace Commission went to the Senate wearing “No Deal! JPEPA” buttons.

Leaders of social, religious, educational and environmental groups came out with a full-page newspaper ad the other day calling on the Senate to reject the Japanese-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) for not being reciprocal, economically beneficial and fair to the Filipino people.

The signatories of the ad included outstanding personalities, like former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, former Senate President Jovito Salonga and former Sen. Wigberto Tañada.

The publication of the ad coincided with a report of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Senate committee on foreign affairs, that 14 senators had agreed to support her committee report on the bilateral trade and investment agreement.

Santiago said she needed the support of one more senator to have the committee report approved. Then the Senate can proceed with the ratification of the agreement which will require a two-thirds vote of the entire Senate, which has only 23 sitting members now because Sen. Antonio Trillanes is in military prison over coup d’etat or rebellion charges.

The JPEPA is a comprehensive bilateral trade and investment pact between the Philippines and Japan to improve market access for goods and services from the Philippines to Japan and vice versa. This entails the elimination or reduction of tariffs on agricultural and industrial products.

The groups against the treaty’s ratification claimed that the agreement allows Japanese investors “to own private land for all ventures other than those in the manufacturing and services sector.” They also assailed the pact for violating the Philippines’ Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Act, “which prohibits the importation of hazardous and nuclear wastes.”

They raised the point that the agreement allows Japan to fish in Philippine waters, which are exclusively reserved for Filipino citizens. They also claimed that the Philippine government under the accord is surrendering several rights which other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) refused to do in similar agreements with Japan.

It is but natural for bilateral agreements between nations to have advantages and disadvantages. This is true with the JPEPA. But a careful look at the agreement shows that the advantages of the agreement to the Philippines far outweigh the disadvantages.

Sen. Mar Roxas made a good point when he said that rejecting the agreement “could isolate the Philippines in the region where other Asean nations could easily take over the Philippine agriculture exports and labor services to Japan.”

Santiago calms public fears about the proposed treaty violating the Philippine Constitution, saying Japan has authorized its ambassador to the Philippines “to enter into an exchange of notes with Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo to ensure that all constitutional provisions in our Constitution that conflict with the JPEPA will be deemed dominant or superior to the JPEPA provisions.”

One of the perceived key advantages of the agreement is the acceptance of Filipino workers, primarily nurses, care workers and seafarers, to work in Japan. For the first two years of the agreement, one thousand health professionals will be admitted, with bright prospects of their number increasing in view of Japan’ s ageing population.

Japan will need from 8,000 to 10,000 Filipino seamen to man its 600 new ships beginning this year up to 2010. Of 240,000 Filipino seafarers deployed worldwide, Japan accounts for 72 percent now working in its shipping industry. The employment of these workers in Japan will increase their annual remittances to the Philippines.

The agreement allows our increased penetration of the Japanese market because of the comparative advantage of our products, essentially fish, fruits, charcoal, iron ore, vegetables and wood products. It also allows a broader range of Philippine products entering Japan.

Japan’s foreign direct investments in the Philippines will increase with the agreement providing “greater certainty and confidence” to Japanese investors. The Board of Investments foresees investments from Japan to grow to P559 billion up to year 2016.

Japan was the largest source of foreign direct investments in the Philippines in 2005, but it slid to third place in 2006, next to the United States and South Korea.

Supporters of the agreement discount fears that the Philippines will be Japan’s dumping ground of its toxic and hazardous wastes, pointing out that there are laws prohibiting the entry of these substances and providing punitive sanctions against violators.

“If we do not concur (with the agreement), Japanese foreign investments and earnings from exports will all go to other Southeast Asian countries. We will be the odd man out,” said Senator Santiago. That is a thought-provoking statement.

We in The Times have given the matter long and deep thought and study. Specially now that we Filipinos are facing hard times and need every boost to employment and exports, we need vehicles like JPEPA to keep the government’s pro-poor programs going.