“supplemental agreement” is not the same as “renegotiation”

you are making it appear that the JPEPA that was eventually ratified by your senators was not the same JPEPA that was first submitted by the executive branch to the senate for ratification.

no sir. what was ratified was the same one that was submitted

if your senators really objected to JPEPA, they should have rejected it outright. if the “formidable opposition” to the JPEPA should be heeded, then JPEPA should have been rejected without delay.

the “formidable opposition” to JPEPA wants the whole JPEPA rejected.

a supplemental agreement?

1. thats a whole lot different from your earlier claims of a “renegotiation” due to your senators’ “scrutiny”!

you are making it sound like jpepa itself was changed despite being ratified already by the Japanese Diet, that the contracting parties went back to the drawing board, thanks to the heroics of your senators

Miriam was “confident that with the supplemental agreement, there would be no need to renegotiate the JPEPA. The Japanese government is not expected to renegotiate with the ratification of the JPEPA by the Diet, the Japanese parliament”

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/nov/15/yehey/metro/20071115met6.html

2. what were the contents of these exchange of notes in august 2008? according to Miriam:

“The exchange of notes means that the areas of investment activities reserved by the Constitution to Filipinos will remain reserved, and will not be opened to Japanese investors.

“This will ensure that the to [deal] will not result in violation or amendment of any nationalistic provisions of the Constitution, notably the ownership of lands of the public domain and exploration, development and utilization of all waters, minerals, coal, petroleum oils, all sources of potential energy, fisheries, forest or timber, wildlife, flora, fauna and other natural resources.

“This also makes it clear that Japanese nationals and companies are prohibited from operating any public utility, practicing any profession or owning mass media and advertising firms in the country.”

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=felMaragay_sept13_2008

exactly my point – in areas where our constitution conflicts with the JPEPA, the constitution will prevail. but the rest of JPEPA which does not run counter to the constitution will remain valid.

You wrote: “geo, i’m not as convinced as you that the politicians will see the benefits of liberalizing the economy in the same manner as businessmen, mainly because businessmen seem to be mastering the ability to dodge the politicos when they go around begging bowls in hand, come election time, though there are of course some big players who have mastered the traditional game of funding politicians in a strategically-sound manner. in that sense one would hope lobbying would advance in this country in a formal manner, instead of keeping in the shadows. i have this impression because of the many cases you hear of once flourishing local industries (such as the seaweed industry) that have been hammered by the short-sighted approach of local governments and the indifference of the national government (and equally self-defeating business practices among the players) so that they become increasingly uncompetitive and then lose talent to more aggressive competitors, such as indonesia (where filipino seaweed farmers were actively poached to convince them to work and bring their expertise to that country).”

** No offense, but I’m not sure I followed all of that. My tentative response is that most good politicians know that PROVIDING JOBS is even better than pork barrel roads or bus stops (or ocho-ocho dances!) when it comes to getting votes. If a foreign firm goes to a district with a plan for creating a competitive export business, you don’t think that the Governor, Congressman and Mayor aren’t interested?

Like I said, politicians usually follow the money…

…and the whole idea here is that the current monopoly holders just aren’t delivering enough benefits/opportunities to enough people in enough barangays/towns/munis/districts/regions.

There is a vacuum since Marcos’ fall which has yet to be completely filled.

And there is now a large pool of politicians who have figured this out.

Problem is…the foreigners aren’t too ready to cede so much control to their non-risk-taking local counterparts. So if the laws are that discriminatory, they might as well do a project somewhere else.

And there is now a large pool of politicians who have figured this out.

(As a side note — This is arguably the only way the oligarchy can be brought down several notches. In my own vision, this is one of the key parts of a devolutionary process. Hence my support for Federalism, Parliament and the rule of law.)

You wrote: “Geo, is there any chance that the ballots used by the PET were tampered with?”

** Yes, there’s a chance. There’s always a chance around here for tampering. However, since there’s always an equal chance that someone is making intrigues, let’s look at the SC’s own findings:

“the protestant had not adequately and convincingly rebutted the presumption that as public documents, the Congress-retrieved ER copies, used for the proclamation of the protestee by the NBC, are authentic and duly executed in the regular course of official business.”

“As to the alleged break-in in Congress, which allegedly facilitated the switching of ERs, no conclusive evidence has been given. One of the protestant’s own witnesses, Atty. Artemio Adasa, Deputy General for Legislative Operations of the House of Representatives, categorically denied that a break-in and a switching of ERs had occurred in Congress.”

That the Senate of the Philippines concur, as
it hereby concurs, in the ratification of the Japan-Philippines
Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) as modified by the
Supplemental Agreement consisting of the Exchange of Notes
Between the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs known as the Romulo-
Aso Exchange of Notes of 23 May 2007 and the Exchange of
Notes between the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs and
Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines known as the Romulo-
Komura Exchange of Notes of 28 August 2008.

The Senater cannot tell the Japanese authorities what to do, but can make its approval of a treaty entered into by the president on behalf of the republic, conditional.

Senate Resolution 131

the jpepa is a mere bilateral treaty. no different from any other treaty – they all need senate ratification.

my only issues with you regarding jpepa is:

1. you said it was renegotiated, presumably because of your senators’ “vigilance”.

again, it was not renegotiated. the jpepa was ratified as is.

2. why did it take for your senators more than a year to ratify the jpepa? a mere bilateral treaty? whether to ratify it or not is much much more important than making committee reports

“formidable opposition”? to jpepa? to repeat – “noisy” is more apt!

im really surprised by your statement:

but it was public pressure and senatorial scrutiny that saved it,in a sense, from the overeagerness of the government to conclude the treaty. the exchange of notes between the japanese and our government can be viewed in the nature of an amendment, additional understandings of an official nature that sort out potential pitfalls in the agreement. that the japanese agreed and our government approached indicates that both sides knew these issues had to be resolved to guarantee concurrence. failure to do so might have imperiled the treaty not just in the senate, but in our courts. again, you may have viewed the treaty as a run of the mill agreement meriting little debate and a swift approval; but both the government and its critics viewed the agreement as a landmark one.

again, for the nth time my dear kababayan -

the jpepa was ratified as it is! in its original form when it was submitted to the senate for ratification!

the Japanese ‘agreed’? it was not renegotiated!

the Japanese Diet ratified the jpepa earlier, in late 2006. senate action on jpepa took longer.

just imagine if the hearings on the making of committee reports gave way to jpepa hearings. for sure a few months after your senators were elected, the senate would have ratified it before year end 2007