‘Love it or leave it,” Santiago tells anti-JPEPA senators
By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 13:48:00 09/05/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- "Love it or leave it," Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago told her colleagues in the Senate pushing for a renegotiation of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
Santiago identified the four senators seeking renegotiation as Majority Floor Leader Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal.
Pangilinan claimed Thursday that a number of senators, including himself, were considering pushing for a renegotiation so that constitutional and trade concerns over the agreement could be addressed.
But Santiago reminded her colleagues that the power to renegotiate and ratify belonged to the President of the Philippines only.
"The power to negotiate and ratify belongs to the President alone. The Senate has the power merely to concur,” she said in a statement on Friday.
“In effect, the constitutional options for the Senate are only two -- love it or leave it. But don't mess around with it," she said.
Under the Constitution and the Senate rules also, Santiago said that the Senate could only approve or disapprove a treaty but could not order the President to renegotiate it.
The senator also warned that a call to renegotiate would effectively kill the treaty.
"Because assuming the President agrees, it would take 2009 and beyond to renegotiate with Japan," she said.
"Trade Secretary Peter Favila had a rough time negotiating with the Japanese ambassador on the exchange of notes. It was like pulling teeth," she said.
Santiago said renegotiating the treaty would mean that one year's worth of the Senate time and resources would be wasted.
Besides, she said, any objection on the treaty should have been raised during the public hearings.
Santiago said that under the rules, a committee member who did not dissent from the committee report was precluded from opposing the treaty in the plenary session.
The senator suspected that the move to kill the treaty was only a ploy by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's critics to embarrass her.
"The President's political enemies may simply want to embarrass her. The rivals of Senator [Manuel] Roxas, a presidentiable, may want to shove him off center stage," she pointed out.
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