Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Facts:
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PH Senate and the President ratified the WTO agreement whereby countriessignatories have increased participation in the world economy through
reduction of tariffs on exports, agreements on technical barriers, and dispute
settlements that encourage investments in the country and protect the less
developed countries as regards trade disputes.
The other senators who participated in the deliberations and voting for the
ratification filed a petition questioning the constitutionality of the said
legislative act
They contend that the same is violative of Sec. 19, Article II, and Secs. 10 and
12, Article XII, all of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which provisions provide
for a self-reliant and independent national economy controlled by Filipinos,
granting preference to qualified Filipinos in conferring rights, privileges, and
concessions, and regulating foreign investments in the country.
Sol-Gen argues that the Filipino First Policy must be read in harmony with Art.
12 provisions on the promotion of trade policies that serve the general
welfare and exchange on the basis of equality and reciprocity, and on making
the economy competitive in the domestic and foreign markets.
One of the provisions of the GATT that was emphasized by petitioners as
violative of the Filipino First Policy in the Constitution is the par. 4 Art. 3 of the
said agreement, The products of the territory of any contracting party
imported into the territory of any other contracting party shall be accorded
treatment no less favorable than that accorded to like products of
national origin in respect of laws, regulations and requirements.
It is also the submission of the petitioners that paragraph 1, Article 34 of the
General Provisions and Basic Principles of the Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) intrudes on the power of the
Supreme Court to promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice and
procedures because it imposes on member-countries to provide for a rule of
disputable presumption against defendants who are charged of infringing a
patented process when the latter is new and there is a substantial likelihood
that the patented process was used to produce the product.
Petitioners allege that the Senate concurrence in the WTO Agreement and its
annexes -- but not in the other documents referred to in the Final Act, namely
the Ministerial Declaration and Decisions and the Understanding on
Commitments in Financial Services -- is defective and insufficient and thus
constitutes abuse of discretion. They contend that the second letter of the
President to the Senate which enumerated what constitutes the Final Act should
have been the subject of concurrence of the Senate.
Issues: