Reveal contents of RP-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, urges militant group Pamalakaya
BusinessMirror, Philippines
Reveal contents of RP-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, urges militant group Pamalakaya
By Jonathan L. Mayuga / Correspondent
3 April 2009
Militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) is urging the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to divulge the content of the RP-European Union Partnership and Cooperation Agreement or (PCA).
In a press statement, Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said the RP-European Union PCA, is supposed to be a joint-partnership agreement, but the proposed pact between the Philippines and the European Union (EU) is authored solely by the EU and in accordance with its economic and political interests in the country.
“This is unacceptable,” Hicap said.
According to Hicap, the EU initially drafted the agreement and the Philippine government on February 1, 2006 obtained a copy.
Hicap said the developments surrounding the PCA’s evolution have been kept from national scrutiny and public discourse over the last three years.
Efforts to secure a copy of the partnership agreement, according to Hicap, proved futile. He said party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna requested the office of Secretary Romulo for documents regarding the ongoing negotiations between the Arroyo government and the European Commission (EC), but the activist lawmaker instead got a statement of the Foreigh Affairs on the ongoing negotiations on the partnership and cooperation agreement.
“What is the big secret being concealed by the Philippine government and the European Commission from the Filipino people? If there is nothing wrong or sinister about the PCA, then both governments, by all means, should reveal the content and let the Filipino people judge according to their collective interest,” said Hicap.
Likewise, Pamalakaya urged Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile and 22 other senators to compel Foreign Affairs Secretary Romulo to give the Senate all vital documents concerning the PCA on issues such as trade and investment cooperation, economic and development cooperation, political cooperation and institutional framework.
“While the Executive department’s job is to negotiate, the Philippine Senate, which is the sole ratifying body, should not be kept in the dark,” Pamalakaya said in the statement.
“The senators are constitutionally bound, legally mandated, politically and morally obliged to look into the impact and consequences of the PCA, which is currently being syndicated among top officials of Malacañang and the European Commission,” the fisherfolk group stressed.
Pamalakaya further asserted the Senate should not be caught flat- footed as in the case of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, or Jpepa, where the Senate, the ratifying body, was kept in the dark in the early stages of the negotiations and was compelled to seal the agreement despite Jpepa’s all-out violation of national interest and the 1987 Constitution.
“If Jpepa is nightmare, the RP-EU partnership and cooperation pact is an across-the-nation tragedy that will soon hit this nation of impoverished and starving people,” Pamalakaya said.
“The real agenda of EU in orchestrating this biggest sell-out of the century is to pass the burden of their economic and global crisis to the downtrodden people of the Third World like RP,” the group added.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Edsel Custodio on February 19 released a foreign affairs statement dated February 9, 2009, on the draft RP-EU PCA, which was submitted by the European Commission on November 21, 2006.
Custodio said the Philippines had received from the EC the initial draft of the PCA on February 1, 2006. At that time, the PCA, consisted of two separate framework agreements: the main PCA document and the political elements on weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and the ICC.
In May 2006 President Arroyo had met with then-EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and expressed the Philippines’ keenness on pursuing negotiations after thorough evaluation by the agencies of the Philippine government. In accordance with this directive, the DFA established the interagency process on the PCA.
Since then, according to Custodio, the draft underwent further revisions by the EC. The second revised PCA draft dated November 21, 2006, merged the two separate agreements of February 1, 2006, into one omnibus PCA. This version underwent a lengthy but thorough interagency process of over two years and involved around 30 agencies and offices of the Philippine government.
Interagency deliberations continued throughout much of 2007. Some issues-particularly the nature and rationale behind the PCA and its relation to the regional free-trade agreement-emerged that required further discussion. For this reason, the DFA and the EC held the first informal consultations on the draft PCA on September 24, 2007.
Interagency discussions intensified in frequency and deepened in analysis in 2008. The number of agencies involved in the PCA increased, while some sub-clusters were consolidated due to the interrelatedness and cross-cutting nature of certain provisions.
