MEMBERS of the Senate foreign relations committee will be asked to concur in or reject a full committee report recommending conditional concurrence with the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa). The panel will submit the report when Congress reconvenes in late April after the Holy Week recess, Sen. Miriam Santiago said over the weekend.

“Ordinarily, a committee report is only two pages, bearing the signatures of committee members. But, this time, my committee report will be so extensive that it will be a bound volume. Jpepa is an extraordinary treaty, raising significant issues of constitutional and international law,” Santiago, who chairs the foreign relations committee, said.

She revealed that the Jpepa committee report will comprise at least four documents:  the standard format with the signatures of nearly all 23 members of the two committees (on foreign relations and on trade); the draft Senate resolution setting out the conditions for concurrence; the report on the constitutional and legal issues filed by Santiago as chairman of the foreign relations committee; and the report on the trade and industry issues to be filed by Sen. Mar Roxas as chairman of the trade and commerce panel.

The senator reported that the foreign relations committee concluded its Jpepa hearings in November last year, but Sen. Edgardo Angara requested for additional hearings that took another month.

She explained the Senate could not  take up the Jpepa issue in January because the budget bill “always takes priority.” In February, it was then overtaken by the broadband scandal inquiry. “This March there is an extended Congress break.  That is why April, when session resumes, is the earliest date available,” she added.

Santiago hopes Japan would accept their proposed conditions that will ensure the accord’s compliance with Philippine constitutional requirements, without resubmitting the Jpepa to the Japanese Diet or parliament.

“The constitutional issues are paramount. Hence, the Senate should ensure that the Supreme Court will not declare Jpepa unconstitutional.  If we do not take scrupulous care in the Senate and the court declares it unconstitutional, such declaration of unconstitutionality will not be a valid defense, if Japan later sues the Philippines for nonperformance of contract obligation.  This is a provision of the

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,” she explained.

According to Santiago, she will be abroad until November this year to campaign for the post of judge of the International Court of Justice where, if elected by the United Nations, she will be the only female among 15 judges elected worldwide on the basis of the highest qualifications in international law.

But she confirmed plans to be in Manila when session resumes in April so she can deliver her Jpepa sponsorship speech and defend it in plenary before resuming her hectic campaign schedule abroad.

Provincial bus operators to join strike; government fielding free transport

MALACAÑANG assured the public on Sunday that the government is preparing measures to ease the impact of Tuesday’s planned transport strike even as provincial bus operators declared they will also join the metrowide action planned by the United Transport Koalisyon (1-Utak).

MEMBERS of the Senate foreign relations committee will be asked to concur in or reject a full committee report recommending conditional concurrence with the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa).

THE House leadership has endorsed the proposed P3-billion special fund to relocate 126,230 families living in almost subhuman conditions along esteros, dump sites and other danger zones in Metro Manila.

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—Dubbed the “Strawberry Capital,” this premier producer of strawberries is the best place to hold a festival that brings together thousands of visitors and residents to enjoy activities and entertainment,

CEBU’S suspected extensive and syndicated “escort services”—getting people, mostly workers, to get through airport processing easily—may be in for another drubbing from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) because Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan has sent a team to look into the situation at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

THE government has opposed a motion filed by former Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo seeking the reduction of the P40,000 bail set by the Second Division of the Sandiganbayan in an arbitrary, detention case filed against her by the Office of the Ombudsman.

ISABELA CITY, Basilan—The widows of Basilan congressman Wahab Akbar, suspected to have been assasinated by a political rival, have expressed deep worry the trial of already-known suspects may be derailed or diluted by political influence. They are thus calling for a speedy trial.