PH, US rush agreement allowing Americans access to PH camps in time for Obama visit this April

From InterAksyon (Apr 10): PH, US rush agreement allowing Americans access to PH camps in time for Obama visit this April

The Philippines and United States are set to resume on Thursday discussions on a proposed agreement allowing American military forces access to Philippine camps, this eighth round of talks only three weeks before US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the country later this April.

The Philippine government has said the completion of the talks that started August 2013 was not dependent on Obama’s visit. The two-day talks, scheduled April 10 and 11, come soon after the seventh round in March 2014.

Originally called Framework for Increased Rotational Presence of US troops, the proposed pact is now called Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.  Despite official pronouncements to the contrary, the agreement is widely seen as a deterred to China’s aggression in the South China Sea.

In a Department of Foreign Affairs statement, Defense Undersecretary and Chairman of the Philippine Negotiating Panel Pio Lorenzo Batino highlighted instead the “vital importance” of increasing capabilities to respond to natural and man-made calamities, noting the recent examples of super typhoon Yolanda and the missing Malaysian Airlines jet MH 370.

Batino listed the following benefits from the agreement under negotiations: critical and timely support to the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, achievement of the country’s minimum credible defense posture, and provision of jobs and other economic opportunities through the local goods and supplies procurement that will be made by the United States military.

The other members of the Philippine Negotiating Panel are Ambassador Lourdes Yparraguirre, Ambassador J. Eduardo Malaya, Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, and Defense Assistant Secretary for Strategic Assessments Raymund Jose Quilop.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/84499/ph-us-rush-agreement-allowing-americans-access-to-ph-camps-in-time-for-obama-visit-this-april