From the Manila Standard Today (Apr 14): US sweetens defense deal; PH seeks review
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III will use the 1987 Constitution and the national interest in reviewing the draft of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the United States, Malacañang said on Sunday.
“The agreement has to be aligned with our Constitution and must uphold the national interest of the Philippines,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.
“These will be the President’s guiding principles in reviewing the draft.”
Coloma made his statement even as the left-leaning Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said the US was offering humanitarian assistance and disaster response to the Philippines as an incentive to speed up the approval of the EDCA.
“True assistance should not require any military pact,” said Renato Reyes Jr., the group’s secretary-general.
“Why is the so-called assistance being tied to the military pact? That is deception."
Reyes said the agreement had a section called humanitarian assistance and disaster response or HADR, and particularly in the areas devastated by super typhoon Yolanda.
“The United States has no real interest to help us develop our military capability. It wants to keep the Armed Forces of the Philippines dependent on US aid,” Reyes said.
“They are using HADR to justify the pact. The US is the only country offering the so-called HADR in exchange for a military pact.”
Coloma could not yet confirm if Aquino has received a copy of the draft EDCA from the Philippine negotiating panel led by Defense Undersecretary Pio Batino.
But he said there was no concerted effort to make sure the EDCA was signed during the visit of US President Barack Obama on April 28.
“There is no deadline for the signing of the agreement,” Coloma said.
“What’s important is that this pact must reflect the highest interest of our country in terms of national defense.”
On Friday, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia said the EDCA would only allow the American military to use the facilities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines “at the invitation of the Philippines.”
He said the US would also be required to get the consent of the Philippines as to what it could bring into the country, where all forms of nuclear weapons would be prohibited in accordance with the Constitution.
But Reyes said the Filipinos must not be fooled into thinking that the US would willingly serve as a counterbalance to China through its Asian pivot without getting the lion’s share from the EDCA.
“The imminent signing of the so-called EDCA will be a gross violation of Philippine sovereignty and the Constitution,” Reyes said.
“The oft-repeated rationale is that we need this agreement with the US to protect ourselves from Chinese incursions. So what Aquino is basically saying is, to protect Filipinos from the neighborhood bully, we’re inviting a rapist inside our house to do as he pleases. That is the implication of this agreement.”
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/04/14/us-sweetens-defense-deal-ph-seeks-review/
The vile propaganda attack levied against the RP-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) by Reyes and his ilk clearly demonstrates for all to see their slavish/obsequious adherence to Marxist/Maoist dictates. His blind hatred of America and the US military has exorcised his common sense.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that the Philippine and US militaries as well as other military organizations throughout the world have increasingly found themselves having to quickly respond to natural (and sometimes manmade) disasters in order to provide timely humanitarian relief to suffering populations. It is only prudent that such operations be factored into the EDCA.
But then again it is obvious that Reyes would have preferred, solely for ideological reasons, to see the Filipino victims of Typhoon Yolanda suffer and die rather than accept the aid/assistance provided by the US military in support of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Reyes and the other servile followers of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Great Leader, Josie Marie Sison, view the RP-US military agreement as a zero-sum game. Anything that serves to improve the military training and capability of the AFP works to the detriment of the Maoist New People's Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and must be stridently opposed. Hence the virulent propaganda attack leveled by Reyes (and other CPP front organizations) against the agreement.