NEPA Statement on Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA)

(Distributed during Magkaisa–Junk JPEPA press conference in Quezon City on November 6, 2006)

THE National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA) views the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) as another Japanese invasion of the Philippines, proof our people are completely unprotected against economic policies and practices that mire us ever deeper in indebtedness, starvation and collect­ive destitution. The process leading to the signing of JPEPA has shown that officials claiming to negotiate for us the best possible terms for external relations have become shameless defectors eagerly helping in the forging of cruel chains to bind us and our posterity to ever greater woes. We are currently working with many other organizations to issue a detailed position paper on the general and specific comments on this voluminous JPEPA document, but this early we are already aware of dire consequences on our environment, on our agriculture and fisheries, on our industries and labor. JPEPA is bad for business, bad for Filipino enterprises!

JPEPA has been imposed jointly by the governments of Japan and the Philippines upon the people who have not been given the opportunity as stakeholders to study its text and air our comments on its provisions before its signing, a process that brings to mind the habits of monarchy. On the part of Japan, it has made a move to advance its interests through bilateral talks. In contrast to multilateral negotiations where the underdeveloped and poor countries are able to team up in asserting their com­mon concerns, leading even to deadlocks in two successive conferences of the World Trade Organi­zation, bilateral talks are opportunities for plain and simple bullying. On the part of the Philippine government, it is plain and simple collaboration with Japan, without even wearing a bayong!

NEPA joins the Magkaisa—Junk JPEPA! in appealing to the members of the Philippine Senate to assert their collective right to scrutinize the full text of JPEPA, with the invaluable aid of public hearings to take full account of the concerns of the various sectors of direct and indirect stakeholders among our people. With its extensively conse­quential provisions JPEPA can never be validly claimed, much less validly implemented, as a mere executive agreement that avoids Senate scrutiny. It is no less than a treaty that needs to be ratified or rejected by the Senate of the Philippines.

In its 72-year history, NEPA has consistently championed the cause of promoting and protecting the Philippine economy of the Filipinos. Considering the globalization-dictated dismantling of protective tariff systems in the several years, NEPA has more consciously sought the active participation of the people in general, as stakeholders and as actual and potential entrepreneurs. Through our tangkilikán, which is a revival of our rich bayanihan heritage, the people themselves will provide together the desired progress and the needed protection from within.  Thistangkilikán includes raising our collective voice to protect the legitimate interests of all the sectors Filipino people against such impositions as JPEPA.

Poverty and the RH Bill

Amidst the welter of arguments raised against the Reproductive Health bill filed by Cong. Edcel Lagman, the issue of poverty had surprisingly taken a central position. Cong. Manny Pacquiao declared, ““Ang solusyon sa kahirapan, yung korupsyon, sugpuin. Kailangan siguro bago ‘yan matupad, magkaisa tayo para sugpuin ang korupsyon.”  Cong. Milagros Magsaysay stated,  “Kung kakaunti ang pondo ng gobyerno, syempre uunahin ko na po ang edukasyon at kalam ng sikmura ng constituents ko.”

On the surface, tackling the issue of poverty is always a good thing.  However, none of those who raise the issue of poverty as a counter-argument against the RH bill are known serious advocates of economic development. Certainly, wearing yellow gloves in a boxing ring as a symbol of fighting poverty does bring cuteness into the issue.

The National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA) holds that our large population is a positive economic advantage that needs to be harnessed through an industrial plan.

The most developed and richest economies today like theUS,China,Brazil,India,Japanare blessed a large population that is made productive by a well-developed industrial and manufacturing infrastructure.

Unfortunately, during the past decades the country’s leaders used the so-called “comparative advantage” of a large population not to develop our industrial base but as cheap labor for foreign companies in export processing zones and for cheap labor export. Hence, we have wasted our “comparative advantage” in favor of others.

Our country’s population will continue to grow and so will poverty unless we bring in all our political and economic strengths to address the issue of a comprehensive industrial development.

As to the RH Bill, NEPA believes that in so far as providing choice for women, expanding education to better the people’s understanding of reproductive issues, and making available contraceptive materials to those who need it, Cong. Lagman’s bill is spot on.