PRESS RELEASE
11 September 2006
Ref:
TAÑADA CHALLENGES SENATE TO SCRUTINIZE JPEPA
Representative Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III (LP, Quezon) challenged the Senate to comply with its constitutional obligation to closely scrutinize each and every provision of the recently inked Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) before ratifying it.
“During the conduct of the public hearings here in the House of Representatives, the Department of Foreign Affairs and former Justice Florentino Feliciano who served in the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, already said that JPEPA takes the form of a treaty and should logically go through the Senate as mandated by the Constitution,” Tañada said.
Yet, during the same hearings conducted by the House of Representatives, the Executive refused to provide a copy of the agreement despite repeated and strongly worded requests for it.
“Congress’ Special Committee on Globalization was willing to go into an executive session just so whatever sensitivities there are in the draft Agreement are handled appropriately. We have been doing Executive sessions in Congress every now and then yet, not even a shadow of the draft Agreement was submitted to us. Bottomline, if it will do a lot of good to our economy and people, why hide it from Congress?” Tañada asked.