Sovereign immunity waiver standard in loans, says Gatchalian

MANILA, Philippines — The waiver of sovereign immunity in loan agreements entered into by the government is a standard provision in all loan agreements, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Wednesday.

Gatchalian explained that the provision is present in all Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans from other countries, including Japan and Korea.

“Hindi ito ang una nating ODA loan, marami na tayong ODA loan in the past, and pag titingnan natin sa Japan, sa Korea, present siya in the ODA loans, so I would say it’s a standard in ODA loans,” Gatchalian told reporters in an interview.

(This is not our first ODA loan. We have many ODA loans in the past, including loans from Japan and Korea. It is a standard feature in ODA loans.)

“Yung waiver of immunity on sovereignty, it’s a standard provision in many of the loans. Ibang form lang in other of the loans (The waiver of immunity on sovereignty is a standard provision in many of the loans. It just takes a different form in other loans),” he added.

The Senator’s statement was in contrast to Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio’s earlier remark that the waiver of sovereign immunity in the loan agreements that the Duterte administration recently entered into with China is “unheard of.”

He said the surrender of a country’s sovereign immunity had dangerous aspects.

READ: Sovereign immunity waiver ‘unheard of’

Gatchalian, meanwhile, said it is important for the Philippine government to be on the same page with the loan financier regarding the interpretation and implementation of the provision.

He also noted that the government had not defaulted in paying for loans obligations in the past.

“Ang importane ngayon, siguraduhin natin na ‘yung interpretation ay pareho sa atin (The important thing now is to ensure that our interpretation of the provisions is the same),” he said.

“I think yan ngayon ang dapat mapag-usapang mabuti, ‘yung interpretation and ‘yung enforcement dahil how do you enforce this (We should discuss the interpretation and enforcement in detail and how we enforce it),” he added. /ee