In their sponsorship speeches, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senate President Loren Legarda sought Senate ratification of the controversial Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement.
“Let me emphasize as a premise that in a globalized economy, the Philippines cannot afford to isolate itself from the rest of the world or even send a signal to that effect,’’ Zubiri said in his speech at the Senate session hall attended by most members of President Marcos Cabinet.
The Senate chief later expressed optimism that the Senate might be able to ratify agreement next week.
Ironically, Senator Imee Marcos, elder sister of President Marcos, had refused to handle the RCEP and asked the Senate leadership to create a sub-committee under her Senate foreign relations committee to undertake public hearings to assess the pros and cons of the international agreement.
The sub-committee was headed by Legarda.
“I am making it clear because RCEP should not be oversold to our people as a magic cure and overpromised as our economic salvation.What it is, is an opportunity, and a bridge toward a better-connected economic region, where the Philippines can establish itself as a major economic force,” Zubiri said.
“We have the resources to do so, and most especially the hard work and innovation of our people to lead the way. With RCEP, we may finally have a tool to push us to the top,” he said.
Zubiri warned that not joining the biggest free trade deal in the world ‘“will make us the biggest losers.”
“To be left out of RCEP is to be left behind in a region where economies use free and fair trade to propel their growth.But let us not concur on this pact out of fear, but out of the goodness it could bring,” he pointed out.
“The provisions in this agreement are not barriers to our development, but a bridge to progress. Not walls that block our growth, but a ladder to climb out of the economic sinkholes the pandemic has created,” he added.
“As of today, we are the odd man out of RCEP, the last man standing out in the cold, not because we are not invited, but because of our inaction,” he stressed.
To further allay the fears of the agricultural sector, Zubiris said the Senate has come up with a set of guidelines for the implementation of RCEP, so we can set up further protective measures and capacity-building programs for the sector, thereby ensuring that they can take full advantage of the opportunities afforded to us by the Agreement.
“Under these guidelines, two-pronged po ang atake natin para gawing competitive ang agri sector against importation: 1) patitibayin natin ang (let us strengthen our) border and quarantine controls kontra (against) smuggling; and 2) we will modernize and empower our own sector.
“To this second point, we will strengthen various developmental programs of the Department of Agriculture, such as the National Rice Program, the National Corn Program, the National High Value Crops Development Program, the National Livestock Program, the National Organic Agriculture Program, the National Fisheries Program, and the Agricultural Machinery, Equipment, Facilities and Infrastructure Program under the Agriculture Modernization Plan,” he pointed out.
“Even international bodies and organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have recognized the value and importance of RCEP especially in our post-pandemic recovery,” Zubiri said.
“Sadly, to date, the Philippines is the only RCEP signatory state that has not yet concurred in the ratification of the RCEP Agreement,” he added.
Six members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - have signed RCEP along with five ASEAN trading partners, namely Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand.
Encompassing 15 nations and 2.2 billion people, the trade ;partnership offers broad economic and societal benefits that. Go beyond exports and imports. RCEP economies account for 20 percent of global gross domestic product.