Cagayan de Oro City — The plan of President-elect Donald Trump to retake control of the Panama Canal to ensure safety and protection as a vital water passage could lead to a review of the Carpenter-Kiram Agreement in light of the South China Sea controversy, a DAILY TRIBUNE source said on Thursday.

The source, a proponent of the defunct Movement for the Independence of Mindanao (MIM), theorized that Trump’s expansion moves in South America could eventually extend to Southeast Asia, where the U.S. holds existing and active treaties concerning Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan.  

He explained that the U.S. used these treaties as a legal basis to incorporate Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan into the Philippines in 1935. While Article 1, Section 1 of the 1935 and even the 1987 Philippine Constitutions reference the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the 1900 Cessions of Sulu, and the 1930 Convention Treaty, these agreements underscore territorial definitions.  

“But Trump’s assertion, perhaps guided by advisors knowledgeable about the 1915 Kiram-Carpenter Agreement, could revive political interest in reviewing the said Agreement in relation to the South China Sea issue,” the source added.  

He suggested that the U.S. might be reconsidering its moral obligation to ensure safe and secure waterway passages globally.  

The source further noted that the relevance of the Panama Canal issue to the 1915 Kiram-Carpenter Agreement lies in the U.S.'s moral commitment to revisit and fulfill its promise to place Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan under U.S. protection. This would aim to ensure peace and stability in critical waterways. He emphasized the strategic significance of the Sulu Archipelago, Mindanao, and Palawan, as they lie between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.