Senate ratifies 4 international treaties

SENATORS UNANIMOUSLY   ratified on Tuesday four foreign treaties as concurred under Senate Resolution Nos. (SRN) 1145, 1146, 1147, and 1148.

Sponsored by Senator Imee Marcos, SRN 1145 ratifies the International Labor Organization Convention No. 81 or the Convention Concerning Labor Inspection in Industry and Commerce (ILO C81).

Senator Joel Villanueva thanked his colleagues for the concurrence, citing it as “a decisive and important step towards more decent and humane working conditions for our people."

"We are envisioning that through the ratification of ILO Convention No. 81, we will have a more substantial monitoring of the realization of basic principles of decent work for all while also educating workers and employers on their duties towards sustainable compliance and maintaining harmonious employee-employer relations,” Villanueva said.

Meanwhile, SRN 1146 or the "Treaty Between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of Canada on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and on Cooperation in the Enforcement of Penal Sentence" provides for the conditions and procedure by which a person sentenced in the territory of one State may be transferred to the territory of the other State of which he or she is a citizen in order to serve the sentence.

Senator Marcos pointed out earlier that reintegration back to the Philippine society will prove difficult for a Filipino who will be deported after having served his sentence abroad with no support system.

“While we cannot prescribe how or for how long other countries should punish Filipinos who break their laws, we can at least forge agreements that will give our countrymen imprisoned abroad a better chance of rehabilitation and reintegration back to society, back home here in the Philippines,” Marcos said.

The treaty further states that exclusive jurisdiction over the sentence and judgment; and procedure for the revision, modification, or cancellation of sentence and judgment will be retained by the transferring State.

SRN 1147 concurs to the ratification of the “Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters” which will provide all possible forms of administrative cooperation between the parties with respect to the assessment and collection of taxes, including service of documents and freezing of assets, with a view to combating tax avoidance and tax evasion while the treaty between the Philippines and Canada strengthens cooperation.

On the other hand, SRN 1148 will allow the International Fund for Agricultural Development to establish a country office in the Philippines as its host country. (Wilnard Bacelonia)