The Senate has approved on second reading several treaties that will be beneficial to Filipinos and the country.
Senator Loren Legarda, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said among the treaties was the Framework Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation Between the Philippines and the European Union (PH-EU PCA).
It also includes the Agreement between the Philippines and the Federal Republic of Germany on Social Security (PH-Germany SSA); and the Agreement on Social Security between the Philippines and the Kingdom of Sweden (PH-Sweden SSA).
“The Philippines has entered into social security agreements with several countries, especially those that host a sizable number of Filipinos, not only to protect the interest of our ‘kababayans,’ but also as a way to boost our diplomatic relations with other countries,” said Legarda.
She said many overseas Filipinos do not have social safety nets, leaving them in precarious situations.
Filipinos who migrate to countries that have coverage for foreign nationals are unable to accumulate enough insurance periods to qualify for full social security pensions, the senator noted.
Many employers risk the payment of double contributions or dual coverage when sending a worker on a temporary basis to the other country. It is in this context that Legarda is seeking Senate concurrence in the ratification of the social security agreements with Germany and Sweden.
Legarda said the PH-Germany SSA will ensure that more than 21,000 Filipinos living and working in the European state are covered with social security benefits, while promoting the Philippines as a retirement haven for qualified German pensioners under the Philippines Retirement Act.
She also noted that both the social security agreements with Germany and Sweden contain standard provisions consistent with International Labour Organization Convention 118 on the Equality of Treatment, and ILO Convention 157 on the Maintenance of Social Security Rights.
“These agreements aim to contribute to equality of treatment, allow the portability of benefits to overseas Filipinos and nationals of the host country, and improve the processing of claims while eliminating dual coverage, among others. We must pursue initiatives that will help uplift the lives of our overseas workers and help secure their retirement in their twilight years,” the senator explained.
Legarda said that the PH-EU PCA will serve as a general framework of relations between the Philippines and the EU and will allow better cooperation between the two parties on political, economic and development issues.
The senator said that the Philippines and the Union have long established diplomatic relations since 1964, with Europe remaining to be a robust economic partner and committed development partner of the Philippines.
The EU is home to an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 of fellow Filipinos, with the largest Filipino communities living in Italy, the United Kingdom, and Greece.
She said Filipinos stand to benefit from the PH-EU PCA, which commits Parties to pursue dialogue in 41 areas of cooperation, which include combatting terrorism, human trafficking and illicit drugs; countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, small arms, and lights weapons; protecting human rights; encouraging environmental sustainability;
Reducing the impact of climate change; promoting development cooperation, and capacity-building and technical cooperation initiatives; and exchange of experts in the areas of science, technology, statistics, food, and drugs.
She emphasized that the PCA also ensures benefits for micro, small, and medium enterprises, which comprise 99.5 percent of total businesses and employ 61.6 percent of the total workforce in the country.
“The treaty will bolster our status as a beneficiary country under the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus [GSP+] and provide basis for concluding a Free Trade Agreement, which aims to enhance market access for goods, services, and investments for the two sides,” the senator said.
“Without the PCA, what we currently have is an ad-hoc dialogue in the form of the PH-EU Senior Officials’ Meeting [SOM] and its working groups, which only discusses issues of concern in a compartmentalized manner,” Legarda said.
“Given the current realities of our bilateral relations with the EU, the Framework Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation will serve as a solid platform for dialogue to explore ways to achieve our shared goal of a stronger partnership based on mutual respect, trust, and equality,” she said.
