The militant Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas on Friday called for the junking of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, a US-Philippine military treaty that was signed under then-President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino” three years ago.
Edca is a supplemental agreement to the Visiting Forces Agreement that allows American troops to use our land and facilities for free, Pamalakaya said.
The fisherfolk group said it is about time that President Rodrigo Duterte put his words into actions by cutting ties with our long-time colonizer and exploiter, the United States of America.
Pamalakaya said Duterte’s previous pronouncements against the US have yet to materialize since he recently allowed another Balikatan exercise between the Filipino and American troops to proceed next month in the guise of “humanitarian and civil assistance.”
“Unequal military agreements like Edca and VFA allow American troops to violate our sovereign and territorial rights as a nation. It also allows US to store its military armaments in our soil, making us a ground zero and vulnerable to attacks by America’s state enemies,” Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya chairperson, said in a statement.
Hicap added that the return of US bases and military presence in the country under the Edca is part of “US Pivot to Asia” that was a hegemonic strategy introduced by former US President Barack Obama and now adopted and intensified by President Donald Trump.
“This US strategy is to ensure and consolidate its political, military and economic influence among the fastest growing economic states in the region and to counter China as a rising world-superpower.”
Pamalakaya said the recent US acts of aggression against its state enemies like its bombing of 50 tomahawk missiles in Syria and the dropping of the Mother of all Bombs in Afghanistan is tantamount to war of aggression and political-military invasion that violates the principles of sovereignty and independence of one’s nation.
“Donald Trump is a carbon-copy of his predecessors Barack Obama and even George Bush for being warmonger and war-freak head of state. He will soon face the collective and strong condemnation and rejection by the people all over the world for advancing its geo-political interests throughout the world through unjust war of aggression and state-interventions,” ended Hicap.