Opening Statement: Committee on Foreign Relations

Opening Statement of Senator Loren Legarda

Committee on Foreign Relations

06 February 2018 | Padilla Room | 9:00 am

Good morning. My sincere gratitude for your presence and participation in this hearing of the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Today, we will discuss the following Agreements, namely:

1)   Agreement Establishing ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO);

2)   Convention on Cybercrime;

3)   Conventions for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income between the Philippines and Thailand, Sri Lanka and Mexico.  These are three separate conventions.

Briefly, the purpose of AMRO is to help secure “the economic and financial stability of the region through conducting regional economic surveillance and supporting the implementation of  the regional financial arrangement.”

The second Convention, the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, remains to be “the sole-binding international legal mechanism adopted by countries to address the threats posed by cybercrime.  It has facilitated multilateral cooperation and enhanced collective capability to suppress cybercrime.”

The last set of conventions generally provides for the elimination of double taxation between the Philippines and Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Mexico.

We will start to discuss AMRO, followed by BCC and by the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements.

Once again, thank you to all the resource persons present today, and I look forward to a productive session.

Thank you.