Senator says passage of JPEPA lost cause
SunStar (Davao) | Saturday, January 12, 2008
Senator says passage of JPEPA lost cause
By Grace L. Plata
THE passage of the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) is most likely a lost cause, said Senator Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on environment, in Friday’s Kapihan sa PIA.
Cayetano was in town to speak before a local women’s group assembly on the Magna Carta for Women organized by the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) Watch Network.
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Cayetano said they have reviewed the provisions well and realized that Japan has covered its part of the deal well unlike that of the Philippines.
"We have been pushing the negotiators to reveal how that happened. They tried to justify it but in the end it was not enough. It will be difficult for us to pass it," Cayetano said.
Cayetano said even Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chair of the Senate committee on finance, said JPEPA "is not going to make it" after 10 joint committee hearings of environment and finance.
"We have found provisions of JPEPA that are with merit, but the over-all picture was not negotiated in a way that is advantageous for the Filipinos," Cayetano said.
She added that even if Japan promises not to dump toxic waste material in the country, it could find ways to do so with other industrial garbage.
"Pwede nilang gawin in terms of donating computers to schools. Tapos yung palang equipment is considered obsolete na and will be useless in a couple of years. Para na ring tinapon sa atin yung technological waste nila," Cayetano said.
She added, however, that she has no problem with accepting donations from Japan or any other country.
"Okay lang as long as they also provide us with the means to dispose it," she said.
Local environmental group Interface Development Interventions (Idis) meantime said this is welcome news especially for Mindanao that will be directly affected if the JPEPA is ratified.
"Should be so! JPEPA has already been exposed to have dire economic and environmental cost to the country. Any self-respecting Filipino and a senator at that should really say NO to JPEPA," Lia Jasmin Esquillo, Idis Executive Director said in a phone interview Friday.
However, Esquillo said the people should remain vigilant until the final vote and the Senate finally junks JPEPA.
