US Ambassador to Manila Philip Goldberg is seen in December 2013 file photo in a Senate event. JOSEPH VIDAL, SENATE PRIB
The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is a "very good" accord and will likely be part of the agenda in bilateral talks between President Barack Obama and President Benigno Aquino III when Manila hosts the APEC Leaders Meeting next week, the US ambassador said Wednesday.
Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg said this in an ambush interview a day after the Philippine Senate adopted Resolution No. 1414, expressing its "strong sense" that the EDCA falls in the category of a "prohibited treaty" under the 1987 Constitution unless it is ratified by the Senate.
Also on Tuesday, as senators tackled Resolution 1414 authored by Foreign Affairs committee chair Miriam Santiago, the Supreme Court en banc met but deferred handing down a ruling on four petitions assailing EDCA's validity.
Goldberg said Manila’s maritime row with Beijing in the South China Sea will also likely be tackled in the Obama-Aquino bilaterals. Washington has recently been drawn into the matter after it deployed - as part of safeguarding, the US said, freedom of navigation - a naval destroyer near where China had built controversial artificial islands.
Manila and Beijing on Tuesday agreed not to tackle the issue in the upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) Summit 2015 - a request reportedly made by Foreign Minister Wang Yi when he met Philippine officials in Manila.
But on Wednesday, Mr. Wang caused consternation among Filipino diplomats after he said that the strained relations between the two Asian neighbors resulted from Manila's filing a case with the UN arbitral tribunal, and it's up to the Philippines to take steps to heal the rupture.
Goldberg, meanwhile, told reporters in an ambush interview Wednesday, “I would imagine they will [tackle the South China Sea-related issues] when the two presidents [Obama and Aquino] get together. Those are issues of mutual concern.”
Referring to the pending cases in the SC against EDCA, Goldberg added: “We, of course, are waiting for a very important Supreme Court decision as is the government here. We have a very good EDCA and we’re looking forward to implementing it when the time is right, when all of the decisions have been made on this side.”
EDCA, a new agreement which is an added feature of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), was conceived in the wake of China’s increasing expansion into disputed territories in the South China Sea, including a large portion of the West Philippine Sea (WPS) where Beijing destroyed coral reefs and reclaimed hundreds of hectares of territory, building artificial islands for future military purposes.
The petitioners against EDCA insist it is a new treaty requiring Senate concurrence, and not just an executive agreement building on the early Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951 and the VFA.
The EDCA was forged as the US made a pivot to Asia to contain growing Chinese aggressiveness, amid concern Beijing would control - with its unilateral imposition of the so-called “nine-dash line” - a vital sea lane where 40 percent of global trade commerce passes.
EDCA allows the US to conduct more joint exercises and station their military hardware and troops in designated camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/120059/edca-south-china-sea-likely-part-of-obama-aquino-bilateral-talks---us-envoy
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