Protests during the Obama visit, 28 April 2014. BERNARD TESTA/InterAksyon.com
Leftist lawmakers on Tuesday vowed to take their fight against the newly-signed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement to the Supreme Court even as the top leader of Congress said the deal will only serve to fortify existing ones.
"Actually it's just an enhancement of various existing treaties with the US," Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said when asked if he believes the new deal is constitutional.
Belmonte said those planning to raise questions before the high court can do what they want.
EDCA was signed Monday just a few hours before US President Barack Obama arrived in the country.
The agreement will give American forces access to select military facilities in the country.
No guarantee vs nuclear weapons
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said no amount of safeguards against permanent basing or entry of nuclear weapons can ease concerns that the US would abuse the EDCA.
“We all know that these can be circumvented because in reality, the US government is the one calling the shots and not the Aquino administration,” he said.
Accountable if US attacks from PH
Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares warned that the Philippine could be held accountable under international law should the US use its military facilities here as a base to attack other countries.
“The US is also expanding its bases in Japan. During the International Alliance of Democratic Lawyers Congress last week, it was made clear by many legal luminaries attending the Congress that the crime of aggression does not only attach to the US but also the country that allows the use of its territory to attack other countries. While we condemn China’s aggressive acts in the West Philippine Sea, we will not tolerate aggressive acts of the US, which will subject the Filipino people to retaliatory attacks by the many enemies of the US,” he said.
Colmenares and his colleagues at the Makabayan bloc said the new deal would usher in the return of the US bases without a treaty and without rent.
“This will practically bring back US military bases in the Philippines without a treaty, without rent, and without limits as the American may use all Philippine military facilities -- an arrangement worse than the Bases Treaty rejected by the Philippine Senate in September 1991,” he said, reiterating what he and his colleagues noted earlier.
Make EDCA public
Colmenares also questioned the “undue haste” in signing the EDCA, even as he asked that the EDCA be made public.
“Si Obama nabasa na nya ang agreement, tayong mga ordinaryong Pilipino, wala pang kopya (Obama has already read the agreement, we ordinary Filipinos don’t have a copy yet),” he said.
The same call was made by Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone.
"In the spirit of transparency, the executive should disclose to Congress the contents of the new US-PH military agreement to make sure that it is beneficial to our national interests and does not violate Philippine laws," he said.
Evardone added, "There is a need to strengthen our ties with our military allies in the light of the growing tension with China."
Colmenares said volunteer-lawyers are being gathered to do the preliminary work on the certiorari case Bayan will file before the Supreme Court.
‘Take advantage of new pact’
In separate statement, Valenzuela Representative Sherwin Gatchalian said the government should take advantage of the benefits the country could get from the agreement.
"The government should put more emphasis on the disaster preparedness and response of this agreement,” he said.
“The rainy season is only a month away and we cannot stop nature from creating another Yolanda. All we can do is to prepare for the worst. To do this, we must watch and learn from the US and make the most of what they can offer in terms of disaster response within the boundaries of the EDCA," he added.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/85679/leftist-bayan-party-list-to-go-to-supreme-court-to-question-constitutionality-of-ph-us-military-pact
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