The government of President Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III should disclose all pacts signed by previous administrations with foreign countries, a group monitoring the country’s free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) said Friday. The Aquino administration should initiate a “serious inventory effort" of all trade and political agreements entered into by the Philippines with foreign nations to ensure full transparency under his term, according the local group EU-Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement Campaign Network.
World Free Trade Agreements, Laws and Regulations Handbook
The EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement Campaign Network is a group of over 30 organizations of farmers, fisherfolk, migrant workers, women and labor groups that has been monitoring the proposed free trade pact between the EU and the ASEAN since 2007, according to a statement sent by the group to the media on Friday. “We should, at the minimum, be made aware of what our leaders are signing us off to, to know whether they have been completely selling us out in these deals," said Ruperto Aleroza, a member of the group.
The campaign network likewise urged legislators to carefully scrutinize pacts signed by the executive branch with foreign countries, to make sure that the principle of checks and balances is “respected." “Aquino must convince the Filipino people that his administration is a complete opposite of (the administration of) former
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when it comes to public disclosure and transparency in government," said Joseph Purugganan, the group’s coordinator. “Such an important undertaking as entering into a political framework agreement that will guide our relations with the 27-member European Union… deserves full disclosure and consultation with the affected sectors of our society," he added.—JV
