PH may withdraw from RCEP agreement it won’t benefit economy   

EXPLAINING RCEP Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, seen here next to Sen. Loren Legarda, defends on Tuesday Senate Resolution No. 485 ratifying the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. Twenty two senators later approved the resolution. —Senate photo

The two senators who shepherded the Senate’s approval of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement on Friday said they would not hesitate to move for the country’s withdrawal from the trade pact if it fails to deliver on its promise of economic progress.

In fact, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Resolution No. 485, which the chamber adopted on Tuesday night to formally seal the Philippines’ membership in the world’s biggest free trade bloc, included a provision for the termination of the agreement.

Zubiri was referring to the last two paragraphs of the resolution, which stated that the “President of the Philippines, may, with the concurrence of the Senate, withdraw from the Agreement.”

It also stated that the executive branch may opt not to implement “any unenforceable RCEP provisions that are detrimental to Philippine interests.”

The Senate leader sponsored and defended the resolution during the chamber’s grueling plenary deliberations along with Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda.

“If we will be disadvantaged and there’s influx of goods all over, then definitely a review [of RCEP] will be in place and will be in order,” Zubiri said in a news briefing.

When asked if he would push for the country’s withdrawal from the agreement, the Senate president said: “Yes. Each and every senator can.”

“It says here that the ‘President may and the Senate may’ [do that]. Each and every senator has the opportunity to make that review,” he added.

Legarda sought to temper the expectations of certain sectors on the would-be benefits of RCEP, which includes the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their regional trading partners China, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

“RCEP is not a magic pill. The government’s programs are also not magic pills,” Legarda stressed.

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