‘Court ruling on Safeguard Measures Act a sl

The recent ruling of a Valenzuela regional trial court judge that Republic Act 8800 is unconstitutional "is a slap on President Arroyo and Congress," Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (Lakas, Bukidnon) said yesterday.

The law, otherwise known as the Safeguard Measures Act, authorizes the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry and other concerned agencies to protect by way of tariff local industries from the onslaught of trade liberalization and globalization.

Zubiri said the decision of Judge Floro Alejo is a slap on the President because she was the principal author of the law when she was senator.

"And as principal sponsor of the ratification of the Final Round of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade in the Senate in 1995, she should be alarmed that a GATT safety net law she authored and promised to the people has been compromised," he said.

He said the court ruling also brings embarrassment on the part of Congress "because it implies that the Safeguard Measures Act suffers from constitutional infirmities that lawmakers allegedly overlooked."

Expressing concern over the far-reaching implications of the decision, Zubiri stressed that a lower court judge "can now freeze the implementation of a law that took four years to enact and that was subjected to a fine-tooth comb and constitutionality checks by the two chambers of Congress."

He pointed out that since the Department of Agriculture is one of the agencies prohibited under Judge Alejo’s decision from implementing RA 8800, the agency is now banned from protecting Filipino farmers against the dumping here of foreign agricultural products.

"That will mean the gradual death of agriculture here, and that will drive our farmers deeper into poverty," he said.

The Mindanao congressman also said two other safety net laws might be affected by Alejo’s ruling.

These are Republic Act 8751, or the Countervailing Duties Act, and Republic Act 8752, known as the Anti-Dumping Act.

The two laws and the Safeguard Measures Act form part of a package of safety nets the government promised local industries and their workers when it signed GATT and joined the World Trade Organization.

Zubiri said the two laws, like RA 8800, are now in danger of being suspended by any lower court following Judge Alejo’s decision.

"These products of Cabinet study and congressional deliberation may soon be shelved by a stroke of a pen of a judge who is holding office in the boondocks," he said. – Jess Diaz

Knowing the implications of the Valenzuela judge’s decision on local industries, trade and agriculture officials are reportedly preparing to appeal the ruling or file a complaint with the Supreme Court. – Jess Diaz