Senate adopts reso stating EDCA is invalid without Senate concurrence

From GMA News (Nov 10): Senate adopts reso stating EDCA is invalid without Senate concurrence
 

The Senate on Tuesday adopted the resolution expressing the sense of the chamber that the country's Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States is invalid without Senate concurrence.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago sponsored the resolution on the floor.

Fourteen senators voted in favor of Resolution 1414, while Senator Antonio Trillanes IV voted against it.

Senate President Franklin Drilon and Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, meanwhile, abstained from voting as the Supreme Court is now hearing petitions against EDCA.

Aside from Santiago, those who voted for the resolution were Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Teofisto Guingona III, Lito Lapid, Loren Legarda, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Sergio Osmeña III, Aquilino Pimentel III, Grace Poe,  Cynthia Villar and Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto.

With her voice breaking, Santiago defended that no treaty or international agreement shall be valid and effective unless concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the members of the Senate.

"This is the only provision of the fundamental law that determines the validity and effectiveness of treaties as law of the land," she said in her speech. "Other than concurrence of the Senate, no authority expressly transforms a treaty into law."

"Hindi puwede na 'yung Presidente lang ang biglang magdesisyon, kailangan ang sang-ayon ng Senado. Yan ang gusto nating liwanagin," she added.

Santiago said the oral arguments presented by the Solicitor General, which represented the executive department, in the Supreme Court clearly described EDCA in the nature of "foreign military bases, troops, or facilities." 

Santiago said this constitutes a judicial admission that the agreement, signed in April 2014, is of the category that "shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate," by authority of the Constitution, Article 18, Section 25. 

She said the textual composition of EDCA in itself shows that it belongs to the category of prohibited treaty, namely, it is a treaty of foreign military bases, troops, or facilities” without the concurrence of the Senate. 

"That such a prohibited 'treaty' has been concluded by the Executive Department as an executive agreement testifies to its inherently prohibitory nature under the Constitution, by reason of EDCA’s substantive provisions dealing with the establishment, location, stationing of the United States military forces and storage of military facilities in Philippine territory," Santiago said.

During the interpellation, Trillanes said that EDCA was just an agreement intended to implement the rights and obligations already previously provided under the Mutual Defense Treaty, Visiting Forces Agreement, and the United Nations Charter.

"It merely amplifies and provides implementing details as to how the parties may exercise such rights and obligations in view of the prevailing circumstances,” he said.

Santiago replied that the Mutual Defense Treaty is obsolete and likened it to a "lonely infant, wondering, unclaimed and unloved in our Constitution."

Explaining his abstention, Enrile said he thought it unnecessary to have a resolution that was just a reiteration of Section 21 of Article VII of the Constitiution.

"It’s a constitutional provision that any treaty, if it is indeed a treaty under international law, then it has to pass the  Senate’s concurrence and so why should we teach or inform the Supreme Court of our position when all of us know the Constitution," he said.

Drilon said he abstained in deference to the SC, which is set to issue decision as to whether or not EDCA is a treaty or executive agreement.

In a press conference after he speech, Santiago said there is no assurance that the United States will help the Philippines with the West Philippine Sea issue.

"It is not for us to make certain presumptions or to rely on the presumption that they will necessarily come to our aid, not necessarily. United States has its own dearest desires of the heart and they will not let us know what it is," she said.

"We will only know when they ask for some things and if we do not give them a categorical answer, they will not give us an answer either.  For example, we know that US needs WPS because of this treaty. Today it has been disapproved by the Senate. Maghanap na sila ngayon ng ibang pagkukuhanan nila," she added.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/543838/news/nation/senate-adopts-reso-stating-edca-is-invalid-without-senate-concurrence