A militant group opposed to the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) said that even as the Philippine Senate has yet to ratify the economic pact, Japanese business groups are acting like they are the owners of country’s natural resources.
BY GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 41, November 18-24, 2007
A militant group opposed to the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) said that even as the Philippine Senate has yet to ratify the economic pact, Japanese business groups are acting like they are the owners of country’s natural resources.
The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya or National Unity of the Fisherfolk Movement in the Philippines) on Saturday said the Japanese firm Japan Petroleum Exploration Corp or Japex has imposed a fish ban near the site of the oil exploration activities in Tañon Strait, a protected seascape separating the island provinces of Cebu and Negros.
“It is a virtual takeover of Tañon Strait, as if Japex has put up its own republic in this part of the Visayan Sea,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement emailed to Bulatlat. “Nobody is allowed to fish near the exploratory drilling site. This is a pre-JPEPA ratification scenario, what more if this one-sided agreement is ratified?”
Hicap cited the case of the protected seascape being explored by Japex for potential oil deposits as it steps up its opposition against JPEPA. Last week, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to talk with the Japanese ambassador in Manila to discuss the proposed side agreement to correct flaws in JPEPA.
The lady senator, chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said she and Sen. Manuel Roxas III agreed to find a way so that the treaty will not be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Santiago said the main concern of the senators was that Japan appeared to have set more reservations in the treaty than the Philippines which had fewer reservations than Thailand and Malaysia’s treaty with Japan.
Harboring illusions
But Pamalakaya’s Hicap urged Santiago and Roxas to drop the idea of forging a side agreement with Japan, as he advised the two senators and their colleagues to close the doors to JPEPA.
“The side agreement being proposed by Santiago and Roxas is not an assurance that the Philippines will get better terms from the Japanese government,” Hicap said, “That’s an illusion and we don’t harbor illusions.”
Pamalakaya asserted that more and more economic and environmental disasters would take place under JPEPA, and that the Japex imposition of the fish ban near the site of offshore mining since the beginning of the oil exploratory drilling last Nov.15 is one concrete experience the senators should consider in making their decision on the controversial economic pact.
Fisherfolk of two towns said the bulk of fish are found near the oil exploration area, but members of Philippine Coast Guard stopped them from reaching the fishing area. Sixty-year-old Fortunato Mercado, a fisherman for 50 years said he has to find a way to catch fish because of the “fish ban” imposed by Japex. Another fisherman, Anny Solon, 38, complained that their fishing nets get snared by the anchors of Japex.
Pamalakaya said what Japex had promised to small fishermen was a sack of rice for every fishing family in Aloguinsan and Pinamungajan, which the group described as consuelo de bobo (a token)
The ambitious multi-million dollar oil exploration covered by Service Contract 46 covers 2,850 square kilometers offshore of Tañon Strait will affect 13 barangays of Pinamungajan and Aloguinsan in Cebu, 14 towns and cities in Negros Oriental and four towns in Negros Occidental.
In May 2005, Japex held a 751-kilometer multi-channel sub-bottom profiling survey using M/S Veritas Searcher and two chase boats which carried a 3.5 kilometer cable. The survey conducted on a 24 hour basis was meant to identify the potential of Tañon Strait to yield I billion barrels of oil and out of this potential reserve, 100 million barrels of oil can be recovered.
Parity rights to Japex in the absence of JPEPA
Pamalakaya said Japex oil exploration in Tañon Strait is “JPEPA in action.” He said Philippine government granted parity rights to Japan by virtue of the following privileges given to Japex: 1). Japex will get 40 percent of the net proceeds, 2). Exemption from all national taxes except income taxes, easy repatriation of investments and profits, 3). Free market determination of crude oil and natural gas prices, 4). Special income tax rate for sub-contractor of 8 percent of the Philippine gross income and 5). Special income tax rate for foreign employees of service contractor and sub-contractor of 15 percent of the Philippine gross income.
“The case of Japanese oil and gas exploration in Tañon Strait is JPEPA in action,” the group stated. “It is a preview on how JPEPA will work to the advantage of Japanese investors in the Philippines at the expense of national interest.”
Pamalakaya said that in this particular Japanese investment, Japex managed to get national preferential treatment, the most favored treatment, general fair and equitable treatment, the prohibition of performance requirements, prohibition on expropriation or nationalization of compensation, transfers of investment and taxation measures as expropriation, all elements of JPEPA.
Pamalakaya said the Japanese offshore mining is conducted and manned purely by Japanese staff and personnel, an offshoot of Article 93 of JPEPA which prohibits the national government from requiring Japanese investors to hire or employ Filipino workers in the operations of offshore mining.
The militant group said the privilege given to Japex to repatriate its investments and profits is reflected in Article 97 of JPEPA which states that a Japanese investor is allowed to transfer his investment in and out the Philippines, including his capital investment, additional investments, profits and other gains.
Pamalakaya said the tax exemptions and other tax holidays awarded to Japanese investors and their nationals were offshoots of the most favored national and most favored treatment provisions of JPEPA, where foreign groups or entities are given the same rights as Filipino investors. Bulatlat
Filed under: Economy, Environment | Tagged: Japanese Imperialism, JPEPA, Oil Exploration, Parity Rights
