EU sanctions could mean loss of 200,000 jobs, Manila warned

MANILA: One of the country’s biggest labour groups and a lawmaker warned that as many as 200,000 Filipinos could lose their jobs if the European Union (EU) would make good its threat to withdraw the trading privileges granted to the Philippines for alleged rampant human rights violations.

The first to raise the warning was Gerard Seno, the national executive vice president of the Associated labour Unions (ALU), who urged the government to “take the right action and take more steps in addressing the issues raised by the EU resolution.”

“If the Philippine government fails to make the right response to the resolution, we will lose the European market which will result in more unemployment and loss of business opportunities,” Seno warned.

Joining Seno was Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon who said it would be “unforgivable” if the Duterte administration allowed the EU to revoke the trade perks it granted to the Philippines for its failure to stop alleged rampant human rights violations.

“I hate to see the day when they (EU) would go ahead and carry out their threat,” Drilon said.

“That’s 200,000 jobs on the line. We already have a high unemployment rate. Over 10 million of our people lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

“You add another incident which can be prevented. That’s unforgivable.”

Seno and Drilon were strongly reacting to the statement of Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, challenging the EU to “go ahead” with their threat to withdraw the Philippines trade benefits under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) Under the scheme, no tariff is imposed on the more than 6,000 products exported by the Philippines to the EU.

These include pineapples, mangoes, tuna, footwear and coffee.

In a resolution passed on Thursday, members of the European Parliament urged the EU and its 27 member states to adopt a move at the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigation of human rights violations alleged by Philippines security forces since President Duterte’s assumption into office in 2016.