The Philippines expressed hope the European Union (EU) would consider the progress made in addressing human and labor rights concerns in its review of the country’s eligibility to its preferential trading arrangement and in considering a free trade deal.
“For me, that’s an old issue,” said Ramon Lopez, secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, referring to the alleged extra judicial killings tied to the government’s war on drugs.
“EU should look at the numbers… it’s not as noisy as before. We hope that they really look at the real numbers because right now it’s not even discussed much here because there no reports of violations,” said Ramon Lopez, Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Lopez said the EU has to be updated or be briefed about the human rights situation in the country.
“They can see… they should appreciate the increasing level, I guess the ratio of (peaceful) arrests versus the violent arrest,” he added.
Lopez said EU has cited labor is the least of the issues although it has raised as a concern the veto of the security of tenure (SOT) bill.
“If you talk about the veto of SOT bill, that doesn’t mean we don’t observe labor rights.
Even the current, the status quo observe labor rights. the possible replacement to that (bill) is (to make labor) permanent in (their employment with) the contractor. It will even strengthen the condition of the labor sector even with the possible replacement of the proposed SOT bill. We’re confident labor would not be an issue,” he said.
Lopez expressed hope with the new leadership of the EU, the bloc can reciprocate the interest of the Philippines in pursuing talks leading to the FTA.
He said while the FTA is a priority of the Philippines, the ball is in EU’s court.
“Frankly I don’t know their stand on the FTA. Even with the new trade commissioner. I’m not sure about their priorities. The ball is in their court on how they will respond to that interest of ours. We will always be open to discussing it,” Lopez said.
