After President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. stated that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is good for the country, Malacañang announced that the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) is committed to push for its ratification.
This was discussed when LEDAC held a meeting, which was presided over by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, on Monday, Feb. 13, to talk about the priority bills of the government.
During the meeting, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senator Loren Legarda expressed commitment to jointly defend the ratification of RCEP on the Senate floor.
Zubiri, who was with the President in his five-day official visit to Japan, said RCEP was the "talk of the town" during the Philippine delegation's meetings with government and business leaders in Tokyo.
Marcos said on Sunday that RCEP would be good for the country because of the increased trade that it will bring to different member economies.
“I don’t see the logic in that. Actually it will be the contrary because... right now kung wala tayo sa RCEP, hindi natin ma-access ang kanilang mga markets. Iyong mga – lalo na yung mga supply chain na available na ibinigay ngayon sa ASEAN (If we’re not part of RCEP, we cannot access the markets, especially the supply chain given to ASEAN),” Marcos explained in an interview with the media onboard PR 001 on his way back to Manila.
RCEP is a free trade agreement (FTA) between the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its five FTA partners: Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea.
The Philippines is the only country among its Southeast Asian neighbors which has not ratified the RCEP.
The Philippine Senate has been deliberating on RCEP with hearings currently at the sub-committee level.