Northern Dispatch
By ATTY. DENNIS GORECHO
www.nordis.net
The Philippines must pursue a genuine independent foreign policy, free from entanglements with big powers.
Coalition activist and Woman Health NGO advocate Princess Nemenzo said that foreign bases do not contribute to the Philippines’ security but instead increase the likelihood of involvement in conflicts not of its making.
Nemenzo highlighted the historical and sociopolitical context of foreign military presence in the Philippines during the launch of the third edition of ‘The Bases of Our Insecurity’ by Professor Roland Simbulan of the University of the Philippines.
As Nemenzo urged the Philippines to oppose war and foreign military bases, Simbulan noted that the additional EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) sites on Philippine soil and the recent largest-ever “Balikatan” exercises have revived the debate on U.S. military presence in the Philippines.
The EDCA, signed in 2014, allows the U.S. to access Philippine bases for joint training, equipment pre-positioning, and constructing facilities such as runways, fuel storage, and military housing.
Simbulan said that EDCA undermines the Philippines’ sovereignty and exposes the country to potential attacks from America’s geopolitical rivals.
He called for an independent foreign policy rather than relying on external military forces. He described the Philippines as becoming “an aircraft carrier of the U.S.” due to the expanded American military presence with EDCA sites and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).
The U.S.’ hypermilitarized strategy of building up military bases and forces surrounding China is increasing military tensions between the two countries, encouraging China to build up its own military power and making war more likely than less.
The signing of the bases agreement in 1947 allowed the U.S. to establish and operate air and naval bases for 99 years. An amendment in 1966 cut that tenure to 25 years.
The proposed RP-US Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Peace would have given the U.S. ten more years, extending the U.S. military presence in the country beyond September 1991. The U.S. offered $203 million a year in compensation.
An impassioned debate ensued. Those opposing the extension attacked the bases as a symbol of the country’s continued colonial-like dependency on the U.S. and violations of sovereignty. They also saw the US facilities as sources of social ills such as prostitution, AIDS, and illegitimate children.
On the other hand, supporters argued that hundreds of millions of dollars annually entered the local economies of Olongapo and Angeles, in addition to billions of dollars in U.S. aid tied to the bases.
On September 16, 1991, the Philippine Senate rejected the proposed extension of the U.S. military bases agreement by a vote of 12-11, led by the 12 senators, dubbed the “Magnificent 12,” through Resolution 1259 of Non-Concurrence to the Proposed Treaty authored by Senator Wigberto Tañada.
The other senators include Senate President Jovito Salonga and senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Agapito Aquino, Joseph Estrada, Teofisto Guingona Jr., Sotero Laurel, Orlando Mercado, Ernesto Maceda, Aquilino Pimentel Jr, Victor Ziga, and Rene Saguisag.
In 1998, less than six years after the closure of Subic, the Philippines, and the U.S. signed the VFA, laying out the rules for American personnel deployed in the Philippines and establishing the Balikatan military exercises.
In his dissenting opinion in Saguisag vs Executive Secretary (G.R. No. 212426, July 26, 2016) on the constitutionality of EDCA, my UP Law professor and Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said that “there can be more creative solutions that augur better with our sense of independence, sovereignty, and dignity than abject surrender to this planet’s superpowers.”
“The presence of foreign military bases in our country, especially that of the United States, has grave repercussions on our independence and on our governance. If there is any historical lesson that we must learn from the 1947 Military Bases Agreement, it is that our national interest can easily be co-opted and made subservient to the interests of the United States. Rather than an independent and sovereign state, our country can easily be reduced to a Base Nation: a platform from which to project the military strength of the United States for its own defense.” Leonen said.
With the majority’s position on the nature of the EDCA, Leonen stressed that “we effectively rendered the Senate constitutionally impotent. We have smuggled foreign military bases into our country. We have succumbed to views that assume our vulnerability and our surrender to the hegemonic expediency of the United States.”
Leonen pointed out that the Constitution requires the stationing of foreign troops in foreign bases or “Agreed Locations” through a treaty—not merely through an implementing executive agreement. # nordis.net
