Aquino urged to disclose details of pact with EU
INQUIRER.net | 07/04/2010
Aquino urged to disclose details of pact with EU
MANILA, Philippines—Trade activists urged the newly-installed administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III over the weekend to publicly disclose the content of a political framework agreement the Philippine government signed with the European Union early June.
The European Union-Association of Southeast Asian Nation Free Trade Agreement (EU-Asean FTA) Campaign Network-Philippines said Aquino must convince the Filipino people that his administration is “a complete opposite of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when it comes to public disclosure and transparency in government.”
Joseph Purugganan, coordinator of the EU-Asean FTA Campaign Network-Philippines, posed this challenge to the new president as news reports confirmed that the EU and the Philippine governments have concluded the negotiations on the EU-Philippines Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) in Brussels.
“Such an important undertaking as entering into a political framework agreement that will guide our relations with the 27-member EU, and that will pave the way for a possible free trade agreement with them deserves full disclosure and consultation with the affected sectors of our society,” stressed Purugganan.
The EU-Asean FTA Campaign Network-Philippines, composed of over 30 organizations from the farmers, fishers, migrant workers, women, and labor groups, has been monitoring the proposed free trade agreement between the EU and Asean since 2007, and is aware that the signing of a PCA is a requisite of the EU for any FTA conclusion.
The PCA has been under negotiations between the two parties for over two years, and both the EU and the Philippine government have not disclosed its contents to the public despite repeated requests from the campaign network.
The campaign network believes that any serious inventory effort of the Aquino government of the past administrations must include all trade and political agreements signed by his predecessors.
“We should, at the minimum, be made aware of what our leaders are signing us off to, to know whether they have been completely selling us out in these deals, as we experienced in previous trade agreements like the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) and World trade Organization (WTO) concessions,” said Ruperto Aleroza, chairman of Kilusang Mangingisda.
The campaign network also believes that the PCA should undergo legislative scrutiny so as to be sure that the check and balance principle continues to be respected in practice.
It can be recalled that the Arroyo government wanted to pass off JPEPA as just an executive agreement so as to bypass the role of the Senate, and if it were not for the consistent push and vigilance of trade campaign groups, the public discussions on the deal may not have transpired.
Recalling Aquino’s inaugural speech where he said: “Papaigtingin namin ang proseso ng konsultasyon at pag-uulat sa taumbayan. Sisikapin naming isakatuparan ang nakasaad sa ating Konstitusyon na kinikilala ang karapatan ng mamamayan na magkaroon ng kaalaman ukol sa mga pampublikong alintana (We will intensify the process of consultation and reporting to the people. We will try to realize the Constitutional provision that recognizes the right of citizens to have knowledge of public affairs),” the campaign network vows to persistently monitor and challenge the new administration to keep this promise and be governed by the principles of transparency and accountability in its governance.
