The Japan visit :: Tirade against the US continues – Foolish and silly: says Duterte

Japan visit is for economic issues.

The President of the Philippines is a driven man; rather, he has always been a man driven his passions and pursuits of his various goals. These goals have hounded him and he has hounded others in trying to fulfill them.
It all started long ago when he entered public life and went on to take matters into his hands; the rest is history.
Now that he has become the President, his aims and duties are far more important to the nation since he is the face of the nation and its main taskmaster. He has been in the news for his sweeping foreign relations that are changing rapidly with each passing day.
It is obvious that all the previous policies did not help the Philippines that much; the scourge of rampant poverty, deep-seated corruption, vast networks of drug peddlers.
With China giving a good response, it is now the turn of Japan, the country which President Duterte and his entourage are visiting. While there are clear indications from the volatile outspoken President of the Philppines that the basic of their foreign policy are in a transient stage, he also continues to assert that he is not severing ties with their long-standing ally, the US.
Japan visit begins
Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine President arrived in Japan on a three-day visit and continued his explosive tirades against the United States; it was quite amusing to see the head of state who has come here for a round of talks, abusing the US who is also an ally of the US and in a much more fruitful partnership.
Some observers, including his hosts, might have been disturbed at his diatribe against the US calling them foolish but, that is Duterte as we all know him. He specializes in provoking and abusing sometimes bordering on the unreasonable and the insane.
The first day was full of threats to cut off the three-year old alliance with the US.
These utterances that are keeping the businessmen of the western world on tenterhooks are also giving hopes to the Japanese business community that they can take advantage and make forays into the opportunities that exist in the Philippines.
Constitutional restrictions
In this context, the speech of Teroa Asada, the Co-Chairman of Japan-Philippines Economic Cooperation Committee is quite significant. He was addressing a gathering of the Philippine Economic Forum, where he was in the company of the visiting Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez on Wednesday at Tokyo.
Asada mentioned that the businessmen of his country were very much interested in forming business links but they would only be able to do so when the restrictions laid down in the constitution of the Philippines were removed.
These restrictions pertain to the ownership of land within the Philippines by foreign entities and the investment issues involving them. It was expected that the steps being taken to removes these basic hurdles would soon fructify into realizing the potential and enable Japanese businesses to make investments in the Philippines.
These restrictions had been the main hurdle in Japan investing in the Philippines till now, he said.

Carlos Dominguez, the visiting Finance Secretary also addressed bthe forum and confirmed what Asada had just mentioned.

He said that President Duterte had initiated an earnest attempt to introduce better legislations through a process of amendments to the constitution. Once passed, most of the restrictions that were preventing foreign businessmen from investing wholeheartedly in the Philippines would be able to do so without any fears.
But, he continued, the current amendments will not permit ownership of land to foreigners.
Thus, a new beginning to the economic ties between Japan and the Philippines was a close reality in the very near future, he said.
Amending the constitution
Till now, the economic relations between Japan and the Philippines had been conducted based on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement or JPEPA of 2006; it was an economic agreement governing concerning investments between Japan and the Philippines.

The whole process of amending the constitution and facilitating opening of the economy to foreigners is getting a refurbishing with the intention of allowing countries like Japan to invest in the Philippines and vice versa.

Moreover, it should not take much time.

A Constitutional Convention was in the offing to remove those restrictions through amendments to the constitution.
President Rodrigo Duterte is wholeheartedly pushing to amend the constitution and, if he succeeds, we may soon a federal form of government in the Philippines.

He stated that the constitutional convention was too costly and he preferred the constituent assembly route.
Umrao singh
umraoz.wordpress.com

Thursday, 27 October 2016
Written for: Lars-Magnus Carlsson
www.thephilippinepride.com

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