EDCA’s back
Since EDCA is an executive agreement, most of the present political pressure is directed towards Mr. Marcos Jr. who has taken a tougher line against China in recent months.
Daily TribuneSince EDCA is an executive agreement, most of the present political pressure is directed towards Mr. Marcos Jr. who has taken a tougher line against China in recent months.
When it comes to being unabashedly pro-American, there is no fractured Filipino society nor armed forces and high command.
Such an indelible fact makes for an honest assessment many Filipinos will eventually approve the broader implementation of a key military deal allowing Americans to build facilities and preposition assets in some strategically located military bases in the country.
The key military deal here is the ballyhooed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with which the country's treaty ally is planning to allocate $70 million, or nearly P4 billion, in the next two years.
Nonetheless, some noisy political quarters are bleating warnings.
Surprisingly, the noise is coming from the political right, including a newbie senator, who is warning that closer military ties between the country and the US send an unpleasant message to China.
Some from this political quarter even make large claims that the development is an "event horizon" — the astronomical term that refers essentially to a point of no return — which will only lead to an armed confrontation with the Asian giant.
Such warnings, however, led an unnamed political commentator to wryly dub it all as a "bonfire of the China genuflectors".
With the issue now being raked over hot coals, a quick briefer on EDCA is in order.
The security agreement was signed in April 2014 and was primarily designed to address Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and as a response mechanism to natural disasters occurring in the country.
The security pact initially granted the United States greater access to an agreed five Philippine military bases, aside from the construction of facilities and storage of defense supplies as well as relief supplies and equipment.
Acting Defense Secretary Jose Faustino Jr. says "some progress" has been made in three out of five predetermined EDCA sites.
These sites are Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan; Basa Air Base in Pampanga, headquarters of the Philippine Air Force; and Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, the country's largest military camp and a frequent location of Philippine-US military exercises.
The other two identified areas are Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu and Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro City.
Under the pact, the US would undertake the construction of necessary facilities at those locations, to be eventually handed over to the Philippine military.
Both Filipino and American officials, however, say they're also keen on exploring additional EDCA locations "that will build a more credible (defense) posture," Faustino says, within the country's exclusive economic zone.
Insofar as what EDCA's aim is, Article 1 of EDCA makes it clear it is meant to ensure that both sides can meet their obligations under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty to "maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack."
Now, even if EDCA is supposedly a vehicle to modernize the US-Philippines alliance against external threats, it faced delays with the previous administration's pro-China policy stance.
The previous government tried to put the simmering territorial row on the back burner to prioritize trade relations with Asia's biggest economy.
But the same administration eventually reaffirmed the country's commitment to the deal.
The constitutionality of EDCA was also challenged in the Supreme Court.
It was, however, declared constitutional in 2016 by the high court, which defined it as an executive agreement that seeks to implement existing treaties between the Philippines and the United States to boost defense and security cooperation.
Since EDCA is an executive agreement, most of the present political pressure is directed towards Mr. Marcos Jr. who has taken a tougher line against China in recent months.
Mr. Marcos Jr. hasn't yet made any categorical statement on EDCA.
But it is obvious he is looking to build up the country's ability to patrol troubled Western Philippine waters and he may just bite further into an enhanced EDCA. Hence, the pressure.
