Court rapped for ruling vs ‘safety nets’

A party-list lawmaker denounced a Valenzuela regional trial court judge yesterday for declaring as unconstitutional a law that protects local industries from the onslaught of trade liberalization.

In a statement, Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales (Akbayan) said she condemns "in clear and explicit terms" the decision of Judge Floro Alejo of RTC Branch 182 in Valenzuela City.

She said Alejo’s decision is against a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting courts from issuing an injunction in connection with any case in which the sole issue involved is the constitutionality of a law.

"It violates the well-established rule that laws are presumed constitutional," she said.

Last Sept. 14, Alejo, acting on a petition filed by some cement importers, declared Republic Act 8800, otherwise known as the Safeguard Measures Act, as unconstitutional.

The judge also issued an injunction prohibiting government agencies, principally the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Agriculture, from implementing the law.

The law contains safety nets against the adverse effects of trade liberalization and globalization. It allows industries and farmers to seek relief in the form of higher tariff for a limited period if there is surge in importation that is injurious to local producers.

At present, there is a petition pending with the DTI for an increase in the tariff on imported cement from five percent to 50 percent.

The petition was filed by local cement makers who claim that the dumping here of cheap imported cement is gradually killing the local industry and driving workers out of their jobs.

Because the domestic cement industry is employing or benefiting tens of thousands of Filipinos, lawmakers have sympathized local producers and their workers.

Rosales said when the Philippines ratified the international agreement on trade liberalization in 1995, the government promised local industries, farmers and workers that safety nets would be put in place for them.

Thus, she said Congress enacted Republic Act 8800.

"Judge Alejo, in one stroke, rendered the law inutile, thereby depriving ailing local industries and agricultural producers and their workers a safety net that was promised to them," she said.

She pointed out under the court‘s injunction, the DTI and the agriculture department are prohibited from acting on applications for safeguards pending before them and from receiving new petitions.

"No industry or agricultural producer, no matter the seriousness of its plight, can now seek safeguards," she said.

She also stressed that the effectivity of Alejo’s injunction is open-ended and could last for years. – Jess Diaz