Monday, November 13, 2006
Cebu City hits agreement
OPPOSED to the country becoming Japan’s dumping site, the Cebu City Council warned against “unfair and onerous” provisions of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
In a resolution that it will submit to the Senate, the council reiterated the concerns of environmentalists, who believe that the agreement is disadvantageous to the country.
If ratified by the Senate, the agreement will make the Philippines “a dumping ground of hazardous and toxic wastes coming from Japan.”
“If what these concerned environmentalists and trade advocates say about the JPEPA is true, then there is indeed a reason to be alarmed. To allow Japan, or any country for that matter, to dump its waste in another country is simply unacceptable,” Councilor Hilario Davide III said.
The council approved last Wednesday his resolution expressing grave concern over provisions of the agreement, which the Philippines and Japan signed last Sept. 9 in Helsinki, Finland.
The Cebu Provincial Board is expected to take up in its regular session today a resolution, drafted by Member Juan Bolo, asking President Arroyo to reexamine the terms of the agreement.
The Senate is also studying these terms, and has learned that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources had advised against allowing Japan’s hazardous waste into the country, even for a tradeoff of increased market access for Philippine agricultural products or health care jobs.
Environmentalists warned that some provisions of the JPEPA are unfair and will put the Philippines at a disadvantage.
Among others, the bilateral agreement states that in exchange for giving Filipino nurses and caregivers preferential access to work in Japan, the Philippines will let its toxic and hazardous waste in, without tariffs.
“The deal with Japan is simply an elaborate exchange of health care jobs for health care waste,” Davide quoted environmentalists as saying.
If the objectionable provisions are retained, Davide said the Philippine Government’s policy on health and the environment, as well as its laws on solid and hazardous wastes management, pollution and care, protection and environment preservation would all be futile.
“We must realize that even in our country, the garbage problem has reached a critical level that there are not enough landfills... we can hardly cope with this problem despite relentless efforts to manage it,” he added. (LCR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (November 13, 2006 issue)
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