The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement will face rough sailing in the Senate, contrary to what Malacañang officials are claiming, Senator Chiz Escudero said in a press release from his office yesterday.

Escudero countered Secretary for Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio's pronouncement that the JPEPA "has a very good chance of ratification by the Senate, for its relevance and urgency."

JPEPA is identified among the priority bills that will be tackled in the first Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council of the 14th Congress tomorrow. Escudero said the government did not do its homework in consulting the various sectors affected and stakeholders before entering into the treaty. The process of negotiation, he added, was not at all transparent, the press release said.

When JPEPA was launched in 2004 until it was signed in Helsinki in 2006, the release of its final documents and other related information were not readily available to the public. This even prompted the petition of Akbayan to the Supreme Court for public disclosure on JPEPA, Escudero added.

With objections for its ratification coming from various sectors, Escudero said, it is his job and function in the Senate to bring forth and make known this position.

He vowed to scrutinize each provision and ask the basic questions of how this treaty will benefit the Filipino people in terms of jobs, income and prices, the press release added.*

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