ESCUDERO PRESSES GOV'T TO QUANTIFY JPEPA YIELDS

Opposition Senator Chiz Escudero today said if the government wants to see the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) ratified in the Senate, it is obliged to answer and explain in measurable terms two questions that the Philippine government failed to answer in the numerous hearings conducted in the Upper House.

Escudero said government should be able to competently answer first, in quantifiable terms, what are the advantages of the said treaty to the country and the Filipino people?

Second, they must be able to also answer what are the disadvantages to us as a nation and a people in general if we don't enter into the said agreement?

"The government is really compelled to completely lay on the table answers to these questions so we can equate our gains and losses in this agreement. In the numerous hearings conducted in the Senate for JPEPA, they failed to satisfy even the audience watching them."

Escudero said JPEPA cannot simply breeze through the country without real polished agreements and negotiations that will augur well to the country's economic, political and social policies.

Government negotiators, he said, should be able to refine the limitations and imperfections in the side agreement provided in the treaty.

Escudero said Japan, as with South Korea, is more selective with its free trade agreements. It seeks external opportunities while responding to domestic interests. Escudero cited as example of this is the clause that allows the Philippine government to exclude only two commodities from tariff reduction while Japan protected 239 of its commodities.

"If the government really did its homework in covering all bases of the treaty for the benefit of the Philippine government and its people, then answers to the above questions can be readily made available for the public."

However, the senator said if the government fails to provide answers to those questions, he believes that JPEPA won't pass as it is.