A third petition has been filed with the Supreme Court contesting a controversial mutual defense deal between the Philippines and the US, this time filed by labor groups both from the public and private sectors.
In its petition, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and the state employees’ union Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) said the government committed grave abuse of discretion and violated the 1987 Philippine Constitution when it signed the controversial Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
The labor groups named as respondents Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad, and Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Emmanuel Bautista.
Also included in the petition were Pio Lorenzo Batino, Defense undersecretary and chair of the country’s negotiating panel for EDCA, and panel members Ambassador Lourdes Yparraguerri, Ambassador Eduardo Malaya, Justice undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, and Defense undersecretary Raymund Jose Quilop.
“Let there be no doubt about it: We are serious in wanting the EDCA to be junked. We do not want any of its provisions implemented. The Supreme Court should side with the Filipino workers and people on this most important issue,” KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog said.
The petitioners said the EDCA violates provisions of the Constitution pertaining to the preferential use of Filipino labor and domestic materials; tax exemption; national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national interest; freedom from nuclear weapons; role of the judiciary in settling disputes; autonomy of local government units; and treaties with other countries, specifically military treaties.
“EDCA means the massive deployment of US military troops and weaponry into the country unprecedented since World War II. All freedom- and nation-loving Filipinos should stand up against it. We should not allow the US or any foreign power to re-occupy the Philippines,” Courage president Ferdinand Gaite said.
The two labor groups asked the high tribunal to issue a temporary restraining order against the agreement while the petition is being deliberated on by the Supreme Court. They asked that the agreement be eventually stricken down as unconstitutional.
“EDCA is like a bomb thrown at the country’s Constitution,” Labog stated.
“EDCA’s wholesale violation of the Philippine Constitution emphasizes the fact that it means the re-occupation of our country by a foreign power and is another insult to the country’s so-called independence,” Gaite said.
The groups were joined by labor institute Center for Trade Union and Human Rights and the National Federation of Labor Unions-KMU, one of the oldest and biggest labor federations in the country, and were aided by lawyers belonging to the Pro-labor Legal Assistance Center.
Earlier petitions
The deal had already been contested earlier before the Supreme Court through two separate petitions filed by former senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada; and by another group composed of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, party-list lawmakers from the "Makabayan" bloc, and former solons, among others.
Saguisag and Tañada claimed EDCA's terms and provisions are “lopsided in favor of the Americans.”
The second batch of petitioners, meanwhile, said the EDCA goes against the Philippines' national interest, is disadvantageous to Filipinos, and is mainly motivated by the US strategic re-balancing towards Asia and is therefore in the service of US security and economic interests.
Under EDCA, the US will be allowed to build structures, store as well as preposition weapons, defense supplies and materiel, station troops, civilian personnel and defense contractors, transit and station vehicles, vessels, and aircraft for a period of 10 years.
The petitioners said the EDCA would grant the US “carta blanche power to establish and operate de facto military bases anywhere on Philippine soil, minus the cost of paying for one.”
They also said the agreement would be a mere implementation of policies enshrined in the PHL-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) — a treaty whose constitutionality is being challenged for the first time before the high court with Saguisag and Tañada's petition.
President Benigno Aquino III has already expressed confidence that the EDCA, signed in April in time for US President Barack Obama's visit to Manila, can stand legal scrutiny even if it is challenged before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had already asked the respondents to comment on the first two petitions against the EDCA.
Commies won't give up on attempting to kill EDCA. KMU is a radical CPP-affiliated labor federation while COURAGE is a small labor formation that purports to represent employees in the public sector.
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