ISDS Case Map
Philippines
Saying Japan's motives were "highly suspect," an international monitoring group urged the Philippine Senate on Tuesday to reject a controversial economic deal with Japan unless toxic wastes were removed from the list of products that could be brought into the Philippines.
As a bilateral agreement between Japan and Philippines on free trade has been submitted for close scrutiny by Congress over alleged provisions that would allow the dumping of toxic wastes in the country, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila is now negotiating in behalf of the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for a similar trade liberalization deal.
About 20 Filipino farmers picketed outside the Japanese embassy Friday to protest the Japanese-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
A summary of the current debate over the Philippine-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement by the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism.
The Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) tried but failed to stop the government from including toxic and hazardous wastes from the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), yielding to pressure.
Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, yesterday said he was saddened by the agreement that environmentalists fear would turn the Philippines into Japan's dump for toxic wastes. Indignation was also voiced in the Senate and calls were made for an investigation of the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
A new dump for toxic waste may soon open for Japan -- and it has 7,100 islands. This is how concerned environmentalists see the likely effect of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi signed on Sept. 9 in Helsinki on the side of the Asia-Europe Meeting.
The right of the people to information on matters of public concern is a fundamental right that has been enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the Philippine Constitution,and which has been held to be self-executory (i.e., not requiring enabling legislation) by the Supreme Court in a long line of cases.
After negotiating away from public scrutiny for four years, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) was signed at the Asia-Europe Meeting in Helsinki, Finland on Sept. 10, 2006.
Last September 9, 2006 in Finland, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Japanese Prime Minister Junihiro Koizumi signed the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), a bilateral preferential trade treaty between Japan and the Philippines that seeks to remove barriers to investments and the trade of goods and services between the two countries.
