Palace prods Senate to ratify Jpepa, anti-torture, 3 other treaties

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang on Saturday prodded the Senate anew to ratify the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) and four other treaties "recommended for ratification." A Palace statement said Presidential Legislative Liaison Officer undersecretary Bernardino Sayo said the Jpepa is the only one of the five treaties in "advanced stage" in the Senate. "Of the five recommended treaties for ratification, it is the Jpepa that is now in its advanced stage in the Senate," it quoted Sayo as saying. Sayo said the five treaties were part of the Legislative Update at the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting at Malacañang last Tuesday. Malacañang is also pushing for ratification of the UN Convention on Disability, the RP-Australia Visiting Forces Agreement, and the Avoidance of Double Taxation on New Zealand Forestry. In the April 22 Ledac meeting, Sayo enumerated the 17 common legislative agenda (CLA) "targeted for approval before (the) end of the first regular session of the 14th Congress in June 2008." The Palace is also pushing for the Optional Protocol Against Torture advocated by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Executive secretary Eduardo Ermita said President Arroyo will soon instruct the government to take formal steps to accede to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Ermita, who chairs the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC), had earlier reported in the UN-HRC's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) early this month in Geneva, Switzerland that the government is "set to accede" to the Optional Protocol Against Torture and Cruel and Unusual Punishment. "This Optional Protocol is meant to strengthen the implementation of the Convention Against Torture to which the Republic of the Philippines has been a State Party for (the past) 22 years since 1986, so it is also in our national interest to be a party to this instrument," the PHRC said in an earlier statement. - GMANews.TV