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By Efren L. Danao Senior
Reporter
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago,
recognizing the difficulty of getting
the Senate’s conditional concurrence in the ratification of the
Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), deferred
Monday her sponsorship of the controversial agreement.
Santiago, chairman of the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations, said that the deferment would allow
the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to explore the exchange of
notes between the Philippines and Japan that would later be
presented as an integral part of JPEPA during the plenary debate on
its concurrence.
“It was highly laudable of
Japanese Ambassador Makoto Katsura to explore the possibility of an
exchange of notes that will facilitate Senate concurrence in JPEPA,”
she said.
She added that the deferment
would also give senators the time to study her voluminous committee
report, which she warned would take a lot of reading.
She had earlier said that the
exchange of notes between Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo
and the Japanese ambassador would take place after the Senate had
concurred in the ratification of JPEPA. Several senators, however,
said the Senate could not do this, as they are not sure that Japan
would agree to the exchange. If Japan does not agree, then there
will be no JPEPA even if the Senate had already concurred in its
ratification.
“My original recommendation was
for the Senate to extend conditional concurrence, to be followed by
an exchange of notes between the two governments. Now, we shall
reverse the process—exchange of notes shall come first, to be
followed by Senate concurrence,” she said.
To confirm Japan’s interest in
JPEPA
Santiago said the exchange of
notes would indicate Japan’s agreement to the conditions contained
in the committee report on JPEPA to make it compliant with 15
specified provisions of the Constitution. She said that a
conditional concurrence is needed because the JPEPA, in its present
form, would most likely be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court.
“It will be a supreme embarrassment
to the Senate if it ratifies a treaty that will eventually be
declared unconstitutional,” she said.
Senators Juan Ponce Enrile,
Edgardo Angara, Richard Gordon, Francis Escudero, Pia Cayetano and
Panfilo Lacson all expressed doubts that the Senate had the power to
concur in a treaty conditionally. The Senate had previously made
only a simple concurrence.
She pointed out that the United
States often used the term “conditional concurrence” to refer to
attachments to major treaties because its Senate could not amend a
treaty.
She said the exchange of notes
would ensure that JPEPA will observe the constitutional provisions
on public health, protection of Filipino enterprises, ownership of
public lands and use of natural resources, ownership of alienable
public lands, ownership of private lands, reservation of certain
areas of investment to Filipinos, and giving preference in the
national economy and patrimony to Filipinos.
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