Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Council bodies to tackle JPEPA By Grace L. Plata
THE Davao City council committees on trade, commerce and industry and on environment and natural resources is set to conduct hearings on the economic and environmental implications of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
This is in response to the letter of Abby Pato, JPEPA Coordinator of the Integrated Rural Development Foundation requesting the inquiry.
In his letter, Pato said: "Under JPEPA, Japanese multinational corporations are given full entry in crop plantations, fishery, mining, and power sector. This particular provision of JPEPA has negative implications to the livelihood of small farmers and artisanal fishers in Mindanao because they will face additional competition from Japanese agribusiness corporations and Japanese fishing vessels in the use of limited land and sea resources."
"Further, JPEPA allows the dumping of Japan's toxic and hazardous wastes to the Philippines misrepresented as 'recyclable' or 'with recyclable content' at preferential 0% tariff rate. This provision prejudices the safety, health and well being of Mindanaons," Pato added.
Pato's group, a part of the Mindanao Ayaw sa JPEPA Coalition, a local coalition of different non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Mindanao requests the environment committee chair Leornardo Avila III and commerce and trade committee chair Peter Laviña to conduct the investigation on JPEPA, which they call the "2nd Japanese Invasion."
