The collapse of the Doha Trade talks in Geneva yesterday over disagreements on agriculture subsidies is a welcome respite for poor countries like the Philippines.

In the end, the ambition that has been driving these talks since the Doha round was launched in 2001, became too much and the aggressive push by the rich countries led by the US and the EU for more trade liberalization at a time of global crises of food and fuel too blatant for developing countries to stomach.

The talks have collapsed because developing countries gave more importance to protecting and supporting its agriculture and industries rather than being hi-jacked into a bad deal that would limit their development options.

The talks have collapsed because the peoples’ resistance to the Doha round and to unfair and unjust trade made their collective voices heard throughout the globe.

In the wake of the collapse, we expect the machinery of the “free trade” dogma to spin the news in order to shift the blame to developing countries. We will hear lamentations about the lost opportunity for poor people with the failure to secure a deal.

We say, developing countries should take the credit for the collapse of an extremely bad deal that would have been detrimental to their own interests.

We urge the Philippine government to reject unfair trade deals whether they come as a multilateral package like Doha or in the form of bilateral and regional free trade and economic partnership agreements.

Now is the time to seriously think outside the WTO-box and move towards an alternative global trading system that puts poor peoples’ interests at the center.

Today, trade talks at the World Trade Organization in Geneva broke down. In view of this, the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) calls on the Philippine government to lead the demand for a democratic multilateral trade system.

The Doha round did not collapse over small technicalities. The talks collapsed over the wide divergence between WTO members on how to achieve development. The U.S. argued that opening markets was the best way to achieve food security and to promote livelihoods. India and China, supported by the majority of developing country members, argued for a strong safeguard mechanism to protect food security and livelihoods in the event of major disruptions to agricultural markets.

The APL and the civil society organizations were unanimous in their assessment that the rich countries failed to seriously take into consideration the developmental needs of the developing countries. Once again, the profits of corporations from rich countries dictated the conduct of the negotiations of the developed countries.

Developed countries did not make substantial concessions with regard to the billions of dollars in subsidies that they give to their farmers. At the same time, these rich countries want to pry open the market for industrial goods in developing countries, and are attempting to prevent developing countries from nurturing their local industries.

Practically all of the rich countries that are demanding lower trade barriers in developing countries are the very same countries that became rich through the use of protectionism when they were still at the initial stages of their industrialization.

Finally, more liberalized trade in services is being pushed by rich countries in order to penetrate the lucrative banking and insurance industries, among others, in developing countries. Worse, the rich countries also want a deal that would allow them to attract the highly skilled personnel from the developing countries. This brain drain will badly deny the developing countries of crucial skills needed for heath care, commerce, industry and agriculture.

This proves that the WTO model should now be buried. Developing countries no longer support what is on the table. And the undemocratic “Green Room” processes in the WTO are no longer acceptable.

However, the APL warns government that the Doha failure should not lead to more bilateral negotiations. After all, bilateral treaties are sometimes even more extreme than the WTO as we have seen in the case of the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

Instead, the focus should be on how the world can develop a more democratic multilateral trade system where our country can take advantage of the benefits of trade for growth and development, while ensuring that international agreements addressing serious issues of agriculture, energy, climate, human rights, and labor rights are more important than just increasing exports and imports.

APL participated actively in the social movement and civil society initiatives under the banner of “Our World Is Not for Sale” to convince governments, both of the developed and developing countries, to hammer out a deal if and only if that would be in the interest of the developing countries during the negotiations in Geneva that started last July 21, 2008.

July 29, 2008; Pasay City: “A vote for JPEPA is a vote against Filipinos,” was the cry of close to 300 members of the Magkaisa Junk JPEPA Coalition (MJJC), a multi-sectoral network formed in late 2006 opposing the ratification of the controversial Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), during their rally in front of the Senate today.

The activists held images of Senators in silhouettes with a question mark emblazoned where the Senators’ faces ought to be. A giant streamer bearing the message “JPEPA is Anti-Filipino” served as the main backdrop for the many placards held by the demonstrators.

“At the center of this controversy really is whether JPEPA will be clearly beneficial to Filipinos,” explained Atty. Golda Benjamin, MJJC lead counsel. “From the past hearings conducted by the Senate on this very issue the Government has totally failed to prove its case that this damned treaty is good for the country.”

The issue of the JPEPA once again took center stage after the Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed by several party-list lawmakers and NGOs requesting Malacanang to divulge negotiation information about the much contested treaty. Last week Senate President Manuel Villar intimated the JPEPA will be one of their priorities when session resumes this week.

NO FOOD FOR FILIPINOS

“Our study shows that much of the trumpeted JPEPA gains are imaginary, but the losses are real in terms of job displacement and worsened poverty for rural people who will be driven away from their land and natural resources. The Senate cannot ignore the impacts of JPEPA to the basic food producing sectors,” stated Ms. Arze Glipo of the Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS), a member of the MJJC.

The group further argues that the JPEPA’s text allows the full entry of Japanese multinational companies in crop plantations, fishery, mining, power, etc, depriving the Filipinos the prior right and access to their land and other productive resources.

NO JOBS FOR FILIPINOS

In addition to the loss of jobs in the agricultural sector, JPEPA’s is poised to axe at least 77,000 Filipino workers in the automobile industry. Even without the JPEPA, second hand vehicles are already coming in through various ports, most recently the controversy involving Port Irene in Cagayan. With JPEPA, it will open the floodgates to imported used four-wheeled motor vehicles despite the existence of Executive Order 156 that clearly prohibits the same.

“If JPEPA passes in spite of these clear threats to Filipino jobs, it will only worsen the jobless growth we have been experiencing under the Arroyo regime,” exclaimed Josua Mata, Secretary General of the Alliance of Progressive Labor, another coalition partner of MJJC.

“The supremacy of Japanese interests in JPEPA, and not the interests of the Filipino people has totally eroded any shred of JPEPA’s presumed political and economic ascendancy,” Mata emphasized.

NO FUTURE FOR FILIPINOS

JPEPA disregards the basic contract between the government and the Filipino people. Unbiased and respected legal experts, such as retired Justice Florentino P. Feliciano have out rightly called JPEPA as unconstitutional. No less than Senator Miriam Santiago, agreed to Justice Feliciano’s conclusion when she spoke to the press after the Senate hearing on the Constitutionality of JPEPA, “it (JPEPA) will be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. That is my humble opinion as a scholar of constitutional law.”

As if the issue of unconstitutionality is not enough, JPEPA’s threatens the Philippine environment as well, since the entry of toxic wastes, and other banned or controlled substances such as ozone depleting substances, chemicals that are attributed to climate change, persistent organic pollutants, such as the cancer causing PCBs, and nuclear wastes are facilitated, promoted, and protected under JPEPA. The Administration attempted to plug this loophole with a side note with Japan, but according to the MJJC no amount of side notes would safeguard the interests of the Filipinos against the problems of JPEPA.

“Can the Senate remain untarnished amidst Malacañang manic push for this illegal and immoral treaty? How will our Senators comport themselves amidst this offensive from President Arroyo? The answers to these questions will be the bellweather of our Senate’s independence, their nationalism, and if they are even worthy to be considered come 2010. We hope for all our sake they muster the needed courage to say no to GMA and to JPEPA,” the MJJC stated.

Workers from urban poor communities swelled the ranks of today’s SONA mobilizations to demand decent work for all, moratorium on demolitions and budget for socialized housing.

“We are tired of being neglected. We refuse to be bought by cheap dole out programs. We want a comprehensive response to poverty now!”. Fatima Cabanag, KAMAO Secretary General, declared.

It has been estimated that there are at least 30 million urban poor or informal settlers around the country. This would include at least 700,000 families or 52% of the population in Metro Manila.

“The jobless growth and low income has led to an explosion of urban poor workers,” Cabanag said. ” This was exacerbated by the fact that government has neglected its housing program for a very long time,” the labor leaders added. According to the General Appropriations Act of 2007, government allocated a measly amount of P28.33 per capita for housing and community development. This is just 4% of the 6,908.15 per capita budget for debt servicing for the same year.

“To make matters worse, the Arroyo regime has opted to literally eradicate the housing problem by issuing Executive Order 708,” Cabanag said. EO 708 amended EO 152, series of 2002, and devolved the function of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor as clearinghouse for the conduct of demolition and eviction of informal settlers to the local governments.

EO 708 is now being abused by some local government units to demolish urban poor communities, sometimes even without the proper court ruling. It even allowed incumbent LGU leaders to use the policy to hostage informal settlers during elections by suspending demolitions during elections in exchange for votes, only to be implemented right after the ballots are counted.

It is clear that the Arroyo regime, like any other governments, treats urban poor workers as the problem, rather than the victims of a far deeper problem – the poverty caused by flawed government policies.

“Nobody wants to be poor. We remain poor because we are locked in poverty by anti-poor policies and by repression. And when it comes to repressing urban poor rights, the Arroyo regime holds the worst record next to the Marcos dictatorship,” Cabanag said. “Arroyo regime should be ousted!” she added.

KAMAO is demanding for the shifting of debt servicing to comprehensive socialized housing program. This would not only help solve the housing shortage, but would even generate millions of jobs.

KAMAO is also calling for a moratorium on all demolitions and an investigation into fraudulent claims for land ownership, especially the so-called friar lands like Tala Estate, with the end in view of identifying public lands for socialized housing.

KAMAO stands for Kapisanan ng mga Maralitang Obrero. It is a 10,000 strong confederation of urban poor workers organizations from Quezon City, Caloocan, Valenzuela, Bulacan and Rizal. KAMAO is a founding member of the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL).

As Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo spins her latest yarn about the state of the nation, thousands of workers belonging to the APL today will pour out into the streets of the NCR, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato and General Santos to link arms with other social movements and demand an end to the jobs crisis and skyrocketing oil and food products.

Confronted with a plummeting -38% net satisfaction rating, 11.4% inflation rate, 16.3% hunger incidence, PGMA is reportedly set to unveil a social protection package patterned after various interim programs such as Katas ng VAT, Pantawid Kuryente and the other cash transfer programs.

“The current crises requires a whole set of policy reforms, and not dole-outs aimed at propping up a moribund government’s sagging popularity,” Edwin Bustillos, APL spokesperson, said. “Clearly, PGMA set her sight on mitigating her own crisis – the lack of legitimacy – rather than the larger crisis that leaves the working class in dire straights,” Bustillos added.

“No amount of fantastic claims about her government’s performance could hide the reality of the Arroyo regime’s glaring failure: its inability to generate 1.5 million jobs a year, as it promised, which then led to a yawning gap in income inequality,” Bustillos said.

The recent UNDP Human Development Report shows that while the economy was growing, Philippine per capita income growth was the ‘worst in Southeast Asia’. According to the report, per capital income grew at an average of only 1.9% between 1990-2005, in contrast with Vietnam (5.9%), Thailand (2.7%), Laos (3.8%) and Cambodia (5.5%). Even Burma fared better at 6.6%!

Moreover, glaring disparities in income distribution continue to deepen as incomes of the richest grew 16 times more than the incomes of the poorest, with the poorest families getting a meager 2.16% of the total annual family income growth, while the richest families got 34.26%.

“Arroyo would want us to believe that the current crisis should be blamed on everyone and everything else but itself. But the truth is, we are in this current rut because of government’s flawed policies,” Bustillos said.

APL demands that jobs generation be the centerpiece of government policies. This means that all policies, including monetary, fiscal trade as well as industrial and agricultural policies should be cohesively geared towards full employment.

In the short term, the APL is calling for a living wage, the scrapping of the oil deregulation law, price control on food, removal of EVAT for oil and food products, moratorium on demolitions and budget for socialized housing.

APL has no illusion that Arroyo regime to listen to the working class. “That is why, ousting this corrupt government would be a good start in strategically addressing our current problems.” Bustillos said. “After all, Arroyo herself is one of the problems!” he added.

In the NCR, APL will march along Commonwealth Avenue with other labor organizations and social movements under Mamamayan Laban sa Pagtaas ng Presyo ng Langis at Pagkain at Toyota Commonwealth.