Former Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate on Monday, April 7, criticized (US) President Donald Trump's imposition of a 17 percent tariff on Philippine exports, which other government officials viewed as rather advantageous.

For Zarate, the US government's move "is hypocritical and contradicts its protectionist actions that harm economies like the Philippines", even as it preaches open markets and deregulation.

"This is emblematic of the utter failure of liberalization and globalization. While the US forces other countries like the Philippines to open its markets, deregulate industries, privatize utilities, and maintain sub-human wages, it is implementing protectionist measures and doing the opposite of what it is preaching," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, other government officials, such as Manila 2nd district Rep. Rolan Valeriano, saw a golden opportunity with the retaliatory tariffs inside of a burden.

It's because the Philippines was, in fact, among the countries with the lowest tariff imposed by the Trump administration.

Some countries were slapped with very hefty tariffs, such as Vietnam with 46 percent.

Valeriano believed that companies in countries with higher tariffs might just choose to build their own manufacturing plant in the Philippines or send their products here first prior to exporting to the US.

Because of the US' latest economic action, Zarate said there is now a need for the Philippines to safeguard its "economy, people, and resources from such detrimental actions of imperialist countries like the US."

He called on the Marcos administration for a "reevaluation of the onerous treaties and agreements that previous Philippine administrations entered into, which have proven to be gravely detrimental to the Filipino populace".

"It is high time that we should protect our own economy, people, and resources. We must scrap these onerous treaties and agreements that previous Philippine administrations entered to the detriment of our people," he said.