Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez MANILA - Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez remains optimistic that the Senate will eventually concur with the country's participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Participation (RCEP) when the session resumes this year. This as the upper house failed to concur on RCEP ratification, a document needed by the Philippines to make the trade deal enter into force, as the Senate takes a break starting Friday to give way for the campaign period. "Our participation in RCEP is a matter of time. The Philippines could not afford to miss this. It would be devastating to stay out of the agreement. It will be costly, and we will be missing a lot of opportunities," Lopez said in a statement Thursday. The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) earlier presented that the country could miss a 2-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth if it would not be able to ratify the regional trade deal, and could experience a 0.26-percent decline if the