If only we had a crystal ball. But, because we don’t, we will have to wait a few or several years down the road to know the impact of the decision by the Supreme Court declaring the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, better known as Edca, as valid and constitutional. Will it make us safer and more secure?
The Supreme Court ruled that the President had the power to enter into the agreement without the ratification of the Senate because it was not a treaty but an executive agreement. The Court said that Edca is not the very instrument that granted entry to US troops in the Philippines because the Visiting Forces Agreement—a treaty ratified by the Senate in 1999—was what allowed their first entry. Once entry has been authorized, the subsequent acts are thereafter subject only to the limitations of the rest of the Constitution and to Philippine laws, the Court said.
In sum, the Edca will allow US troops, planes, and ships increased presence in Philippine military bases and will allow the US to store fuel and military equipment in facilities or locations to be identified and agreed upon. The Philippine law remains in force in said places, the Supreme Court said. Thus, they cannot be considered as bona fide US military facilities, the Supreme Court explained, disregarding the claim that the Philippines will be targeted by enemies of the United States.
It is this writer’s view that the Supreme Court chose to look at the big picture and view the issues as inextricably connected to the brewing crisis that threatens the security of our territory and national sovereignty rather than rigidly apply constitutional doctrines. In fact, the Court said, in an event requiring a defensive response, the Philippines will be prepared alongside the US to defend its islands and ensure its territorial integrity pursuant to a relationship built on the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement. In his separate and concurring opinion, Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio discussed the looming threat of China’s military power in the West Philippine Sea. China claims to own under its nine-dashed line theory reefs and shoals in the West Philippine Sea identified as either part of the Philippine territorial waters or belonging to its exclusive economic zone under UNCLOS or the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. China was a signatory to this convention but now it even refuses to participate in the arbitration case filed by the Philippines in the United Nations.
Justice Carpio said that the Edca was necessary to attain the aim of the Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and the Philippines to “declare publicly and formally their sense of unity and their common determination to defend themselves against external armed attack.” For the US to successfully help the Philippines resist armed aggression rather than having no teeth, there is a need for the prepositioning of war materials in strategic locations, Justice Carpio said. This will also telegraph to the enemy that any armed aggression will be repelled, he added. The Philippines, acting by itself, cannot hope to deter China from enforcing its nine-dash lines claim, he added.
China, for its part reacted fiercely. Getting wind of the Supreme Court’s decision and the talks in Washington between officials of the US and the Philippines, China said that the Supreme Court decision would only escalate tensions in the region and “could push the situation to the brink of war.” The editorial in the official Chinese Xinhua news agency even called the Supreme Court’s decision a “stupid” move, revealing that the decision created an impact on Beijing. Whether China will, in fact, be deterred or inflamed remains to be seen, however.
There too is the alarm raised by Bayan Muna Representative, Neri Colmenares, that the presence of US troops and facilities in the Philippines is a magnet for attacks because the US is the target of terrorist extremists. This will expose Filipinos to a heightened danger of terrorist activities, he said. This brings us to ask, will terrorists even care to remember that the occupied facilities or locations of US troops here are not bona fide US territories? Terrorist attacks carried out in various parts of the world tell us that they were not guided by either rhyme or reason favoring their targets but only by the agenda known only to them.
Are we then being unwittingly more dragged into harm’s way than being protected by Edca? We can only pray that we are not.
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