‘Republic of Importations’

The prices of fuel and food products were already on the spiral as the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte winded down from office on June 30 last year. The steep rise of inflation set in while the country was slowly stepping out of the adverse economic slowdown from the COVID-19 pandemic. The new administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) took over at a time when we started feeling the pinch of the global supply chain disrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to inflict price shocks to the global economy. PBBM described last year these price shocks as “imported inflation” that the Philippines and other countries have been suffering from since then. These price shocks continue pushing up the country’s inflation rate to hit 8.6 percent average in January.

Worse, the prices of imported onions and sugar in the Philippines breached unprecedented levels. It sent our Senators into frenzy of investigations “in aid of legislation” against suspected smugglers and hoarders as behind the alleged artificial shortage of both imported and locally produced onions, sugar and even fish products.

Ironically, the Senate of the 19th Congress bravely ratified last week yet another international free trade agreement.

Called as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), 20 of the 24 Senators voted to ratify it under Senate Resolution No. 485. The RCEP is a free trade agreement first conceived in August 2012. It covers the ten member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and its dialogue partners Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand.

The Senate of the 19th Congress finally approved the entry and membership of the Philippines to the RCEP. Under the 1987 country’s Constitution, two-thirds of the Senate – or 16 Senators – need to vote for ratification of international treaty entered into by the Philippine government to make it binding and executory for implementation. It was first submitted during the previous administration but failed the muster of the 18th Congress.

In impassioned speech at the plenary sessions last Monday, Senate president Juan Miguel Zubiri strongly endorsed the ratification of the RCEP. Originally, PBBM – who is concurrently the Agriculture Secretary – has been wary of Philippine accession to the RCEP out of concerns about the stiffer competition it might pose to Filipino farmers. However, big business groups in the Philippines warned that the country faces greater risks of losing competitiveness if it does not join the RCEP.

Then PBBM pitched for the RCEP in his speech before top executives of the biggest Japanese investors during his official visit in Tokyo from Feb. 8 to 12. “This administration is pushing for the congressional ratification – which I am promised will be coming soon – of the Philippines’ participation to the RCEP,” PBBM told his Japanese audience. The Senate president and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez were part of the Philippine delegation of PBBM’s official visit to Japan.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate committee on foreign relations, reported out the supposed benefits of the RCEP as a way to make the Philippines more competitive in trade with other countries. Subsequently, the RCEP was ratified in marathon sessions after two days of plenary debate last week.

Zubiri clarified the Senate Resolution though provided for exit clause for the President to withdraw from RCEP.

Opposition stalwart Sen. Risa Hontiveros, however, was unconvinced and cast the only “No” vote for RCEP. She argued that our country has not yet recovered from the pandemic and that it is ill timed to implement RCEP when the Philippine agriculture productivity remains low.

Presidential sister, Sen. Imee Marcos abstained from the RCEP ratification. “I’d like to stress that my worry is brought by my principle, not because I’m the sister of someone powerful, but because of my father’s legacy which is to prioritize the marginalized – farmers and the needy,” Sen. Imee pointed out.

Senator Robinhood Padilla swore he totally agreed with Sen. Imee’s concerns but was rendered speechless after listening to her all-Tagalog explanatory vote on the RCEP. Speaking the next day in our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Sen. Padilla claimed his vote was purportedly skipped over before he could respond to the Senate Secretary calling out for his vote.

Obviously, it was merely an alibi. The neophyte Senator actually could go to the Senate Secretariat to inform them there has been un-intended lapse and he could correct the record of voting.

Padilla though insisted his vote for RCEP does not stop him to still push for Charter change (Cha-cha). As the chairman of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revisions of code, Padilla cited, he wants the benefits of the RCEP to benefit Filipino farmers by amending first the “restrictive” economic provisions in the present Constitution. “How can we be competitive, if our Constitution is obsolete?” Padilla rhetorically asked.

Padilla earlier filed a proposed Joint Resolution to amend the Constitutional provisions that restricts foreign ownership of certain economic sectors to just 40 percent. Padilla, however, is worried RCEP could have a similar bad effect on farmers like the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) if not properly implemented.

Padilla rued the RTL allowed so much the importation of rice that led to palay prices to drop way below to uplift the lives of Filipino rice farmers. Despite importations of onions now flooding the domestic markets, he noted, onion prices per kilo ironically remain higher than the daily minimum wage of Filipinos.

Lamenting this as a “tragic comedy,” Padilla quipped: “We are now a Republic of Importations.”

He could only wish that trade and investments could go together to push up the country’s economy above and not as a cellar dweller to its competitors in the region.