PALACE SHOULD BE TRANSPARENT ON TRADE TREATY, NORTH RAIL PROJECT INSTEAD OF
INVOKING EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said
Malacañang should be transparent in revealing the facts behind the
Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement and the North Rail Project
instead of trying to withhold information by invoking the executive
privilege of the presidency.
Pimentel said the distasteful habit of Malacañang to suppress information
related to projects or transactions being reviewed or investigated by the
Senate is only inflaming the feeling of distrust, frustration and alienation
among the people as shown in the minus 38 public satisfaction rating for
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the second quarter of 2008 survey of
the Social Weather Stations.
“Any attempt on the part of the Palace to conceal documents and information
related to the two controversial deals will only reinforce the allegation
that the government fell short of its duty to protect national interest
during the negotiations with Japan on the trade treaty and with China on the
four-year old but now suspended railway project,” the minority leader said.
He laughed off claim that the executive branch scored a legal victory when
the Supreme Court recently ruled that Malacañang could not be compelled to
reveal confidential documents that were used during the negotiations for the
JPEPA conducted by Philippine and Japanese officials by virtue of executive
privilege.
Pimentel said it would be senseless to insist on secrecy over these
documents on the pretense of safeguarding the confidentiality of diplomatic
negotiations because such attitude does not help in persuading the senators
to ratify the bilateral treaty.
Besides, he said such supposedly classified documents or diplomatic
discussions can be disclosed during closed-door or executive sessions of the
Senate thereby avoiding any possibility of impairing national interest or
security.
Pimentel warned that the Palace would be committing a costly mistake by
imposing a blackout on such classified documents which may be necessary for
understanding and resolving purportedly legal infirmities and terms and
conditions of the trade treaty that are unfair and disadvantageous to the
Philippines, as claimed by the administration’s legislative ally, Sen.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Reacting to Malacañang’s statement that it will not hesitate to invoke
executive privilege as the Senate moves to reinvestigate the North Rail
Project, Pimentel said such posture is ludicrous in the face of the acute
troubles that are hounding the $503 million railway project.
He said the Palace owes it to the people to tell them about the real status
and background of the project in the face of reports that the contractor,
China National Machineries and Equipment Group, has suspended civil works
pending the government’s approval of an additional $299 million funding.
The first phase of the NRP, a 32-kilometer stretch from Caloocan to Malolos,
was originally funded by a $400 million loan from China’s Eximbank and $103
million counterpart funding from our government.
Pimentel stressed that the government should decide whether to allow the
CNMEG to undertake the project under patently unacceptable and onerous
conditions or to simply terminate the contract with the Chinese engineering
firm.
He lamented that the Arroyo government signed the agreement with China on
the NRP in 2004 despite terms and conditions that were not only grossly
disadvantageous to the Philippines but also patently illegal and violative
of the country’s procurement and infrastructure laws.
These unacceptable terms included: 1. The lending institution, China’s
Export-Import Bank was given the right to award the NRP to a company of its
choice without the benefit of public bidding; 2. The project was awarded
without first requiring the contractor to submit a feasibility study or
design of the railway system; 3. The Eximbank was allowed to directly pay
the contractor out of the proceeds of the loan without the need to release
the money to the Philippine government; and 4. Disputes arising from the
contract would be resolved in a Chinese court under Chinese laws.
“It is the lack of transparency the Arroyo government which is to blame why
the North Rail Project is mired in acute troubles. The fate of the project
is now uncertain. The CNMEG is asking for additional funding, and yet it has
not even started actual construction of the railway system four years after
the project agreement was signed,” he said.
Date: July 20, 2008
Ref: Omeng Maglangit / (02) 5526733 |
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