EDCA hews closely to junked bases treaty

From the Business World (Dec 18): EDCA hews closely to junked bases treaty

WRAPPING up their case against the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), one group of petitioners charged that the executive agreement “hews closely” to the Military Bases Agreement that ended in 1991.

In a 146-page memorandum dated Dec. 15, petitioners led by militant umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said that aside from bypassing the Constitutionally mandated Senate approval, the executive agreement also granted the same rights to the United States as those granted by the 1947 Military Bases Agreement.

Senators in 1991 rejected the extension of the Philippine-US Military Bases Agreement, effectively kicking the American forces out of Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Subic Naval Base in Zambales.

“While there is no existing treaty that covers the same range and scope of what EDCA provides, there is, most tellingly, one that had lost effect in 1991,” said the petitioners in their memorandum.

It noted that there was “no ambiguity at whose instance the agreements were made,” with both agreements stating that US military assistance had been requested by the Philippines.

Both agreements provided for “extensive control and authority over facilities and locations,” the petition read.

Both agreements also allowed not only US forces, but also US civilian contractors. They also allowed broader “entry of equipment, supplies, and materiel for a wide range of uses.”

“With such definitions vague and encompassing, there is no imaginable limit to what the US can bring into the Philippines under EDCA,” the petition read.

The petitioners had also reiterated previously stated points regarding its constitutionality.

The executive agreement was signed in late April by President Benigno S. C. Aquino III and his counterpart, President Barack H. Obama, during the latter’s state visit to the country.

EDCA allowed the US more leeway for greater rotational presence in Philippine territory, the petitioners said.

Government lawyers were earlier reported to have filed this week their 42-page memorandum regarding the EDCA. Aside from defending the agreement from the need for Senate concurrence, Solicitor General Florin T. Hilbay said sending it for approval would “result in an international embarrassment” for Mr. Aquino.

The petition by Bayan, along with another by former Senators Rene A.V. Saguisag and Wigberto E. Tañada, were heard during oral arguments by the Supreme Court in November.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Nation&title=edca-hews-closely-to-junked-bases-treaty&id=99806