The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement is an executive agreement entered into by the Philippines and the United States intended to bolster the alliance between the two countries. It outlines new defense cooperation measures and according to their proponents, the EDCA not only “promotes peace and security but allows the United States to respond more quickly to environmental and human disasters in the region.”
The agreement authorizes the United States to rotate its troops in the Philippines for extended stays and permits the former to build and operate facilities on Philippine bases for both American and Philippine soldiers. Under the agreement, the U.S. forces may exercise operational control, construct facilities, put troops and defense equipment, materials, and supplies, and use certain locations in the Philippines, retaining ownership and control thereof. There will be combined military training and exercises between the two forces. The U.S., however, is not allowed to establish permanent military bases nor can it store nuclear weapons.
It will be recalled that the EDCA is a supplementary agreement to the Visiting Forces Agreement of 1999 and 2014 as well as the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.
In 2016, by a vote of 10-4, the Supreme Court ruled that the agreement is constitutional.
On 1 February 2023, both the Philippines and the U.S. announced their agreement to expand EDCA by designating four new agreed yet-to-be-named strategic areas in the Philippines and the “substantial completion of the projects in the existing five Agreed locations.”
The announcement elicited a cacophony of voices of dissent from critics and a few expressions of support from the senators and defense department officials. Those opposed are saying that not only should EDCA not be expanded, but it should also altogether be scrapped as it puts the country in harm’s way. Those in agreement argue that expanding the defense cooperation agreement reinforces the alliance between the United States and the Philippines even as it enhances the security blanket of the Philippines.
Others are pontificating the theory that President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. is reneging on his commitment during the presidential campaign as a candidate and reiterated in his inaugural speech where he asserted in unequivocal terms that he would pursue the independent foreign policy articulated by former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte which is “Friends” to all, and enemies to none. They postulate that there is a paradigm shift in foreign policy by the current President. Where FPRRD, during his term, wanted to terminate Enhanced Defense Executive Agreement and the Visiting Forces Agreement, and in fact at one time suspended the operation of the same, PBBM is expanding its coverage.
The advocates of this paradigm shift in foreign policy may have forgotten that FPRRD, while he may have suspended the implementation of EDCA, for good reason, as he received reports that the United States military contingent had brought into the country nuclear weapons, which is a violation of the Constitution, he, however, lifted such suspension during the last part of his term, most probably because the report of the U.S. surreptitiously bringing in nuclear weapons was not validated.
Moreover, pursuing an independent foreign policy doesn’t mean our country cannot enter into security agreements with other countries or continue with existing ones.
The Constitution, particularly Section 7 of Article II, under the Declarations of Principles And State Policies, is explicit in its description of what an independent foreign policy is. It says that the paramount consideration that must be taken vis-a-vis our relations with other countries would be “national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interest and the right to self-determination.”
It goes without saying that when FPRRD initially suspended the operation of EDCA and subsequently lifted its suspension, he did it because from his point of view, as Head of State, he deemed both actions were in our country’s national interest. In the same manner that PBBM, in agreeing to expand the coverage of EDCA, particularly the additional four agreed locations for the use of the United States military forces, was likewise acting in the national interest for such expanded scope.
As the title of this column suggests, the expansion brings both blessings and ruin. While the presence of the U.S. military forces strengthens our defense capabilities against external attacks, their manpower, and equipment boosting our response to environmental disasters, their continued stay and added military installations, however, is absolutely a magnet for attacks and counter-offensives from countries the U.S. is in armed conflict with, thereby placing in constant peril the safety of the Filipino nation.
Those from whose hands lie the protection of the lives of the Filipino race and the country’s territorial integrity should seriously weigh which of the two resultant divergent effects of EDCA veers heavily on the side of our country’s national interest.