Legislators in the upper house will soon begin deeper discussions aimed at ratifying the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) between the Philippines and Japan after it was endorsed to the plenary, according to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chairperson Imee Marcos.
“In principle it was endorsed into the plenary. So, we’re trying to iron out issues about jurisdiction and the privileges to be extended to the Japanese visiting forces as well as the civilian component,” she said at a committee hearing on Monday.
Signed on July 8, 2024, the RAA allows Filipino soldiers to undergo joint military training with their counterparts in Japan. Senator Marcos said this would not produce other executive agreements in the long run.
“We clarified that since we do not have a mutual defense treaty (with Japan), this (RAA) will not spawn another executive agreement all of a sudden,” Senator Marcos emphasized.
The Philippines has a mutual defense treaty with the United States, on top of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which permits American forces to be stationed in particular areas for joint training, exercises, and humanitarian missions.
At the hearing, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro—who signed the RAA with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa—also clarified that the RAA is not a military basing agreement, which is prohibited under Philippine laws.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Assistant Secretary Aileen Mendiola-Rau stated that Japan is consistently the Philippines’ top partner in terms of bilateral official development assistance (ODA). She highlighted the more than 12 billion USD ODA that Manila received from Tokyo.
This figure covers assistance provided by Japan in the areas of infrastructure development, disaster risk mitigation, food security, education, health, maritime safety and peace and development in Mindanao.
“Japan has consistently supported the Philippines’ assertion of sovereignty and sovereign rights particularly in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). Our bilateral relations have become an important aspect of regional stability in the Indo-Pacific,” Mendiola-Rau said.
