ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio expressed disappointment on Wednesday after the Philippines only managed to reduce US tariffs by one percent while granting the Western superpower no tariffs at all in yet another lopsided trade agreement.
This developed after President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. met with US President Donald Trump in the White House. Tinio minced no words in criticizing the outcome of their meeting, which he described as a “disastrous humiliation” for the Philippines.
“From 20 percent, Marcos Jr. proudly announced he got the US tariff down to 19 percentage point—a measly one percentage point drop. In exchange, the Philippines is now a no-tariff dumping ground for US automobiles, soy, wheat and pharmaceutical giants,” said Tinio, a member of the Makabayan Bloc.
“This is not diplomacy. This visit has turned out to be a disastrous humiliation ritual where Marcos Jr. surrenders markets and sovereignty while Trump gets to crow about ‘winning,’” the lawmaker added.
“So much for the ‘ironclad’ special relationship,” Tinio noted, referencing the adjective that US government officials love to use when describing bilateral relations with its former colony and longtime Southeast Asian treaty ally.
The lawmaker warned that the deal spells the further destruction of domestic industries.
“While zero-tariff US products flooding our shelves, goods produced by Filipino manufacturers and farmers are slapped with an exorbitant and arbitrary tariff, some will be forced out of the US market leading to job losses and economic dislocation,” he said.
Tinio also pointed to the unwritten but unmistakable military concessions.
“On top of the open-market giveaway, we are seeing accelerated US military build-up—an ammunition hub in Subic and a new naval facility in Palawan—without any transparent treaty ratification. The Filipino people are paying twice: in lost livelihoods and in surrendered sovereignty,” he said.
He likened the talks to previous lopsided negotiations under the Duterte administration on the West Philippine Sea.
“This is no different from the Xi-Duterte ‘deal’ on Bajo de Masinloc: China claimed the waters and Duterte merely boasted that Filipino fishermen could fish at the periphery when China allowed it. Now the US claims our market and our territory, and Marcos Jr. celebrates a one percentage point tariff reduction,” Tinio said.
