No truly independent foreign policy of PH with Balikatan exercises

The Philippines must pursue a truly independent foreign policy, free from entanglements with any big powers.

Coalition activist and Woman Health NGO advocate Princess Nemenzo said that foreign bases do not contribute to the Philippines’ security but rather increase the likelihood of involvement in conflicts not of its making.

The historical and sociopolitical context of foreign military presence in the Philippines was highlighted by Nemenzo during the launch of the third edition of ‘The Bases of Our Insecurity’ by Professor Roland Simbulan of University of the Philippines.

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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 US military presence in the Philippines.

The EDCA, signed in 2014 allows U.S. access to Philippine bases for joint training, pre-positioning of equipment and building of facilities such as runways, fuel storage and military housing, but it is not a permanent presence.

Simbulan said that EDCA undermines the Philippines’ sovereignty and expose the country to potential attacks from America’s geopolitical rivals due to  entanglement in increasing conflicts among superpowers such as US, China and Russia.

He called for a foreign policy that is independent, rather than relying on external military forces. He described the Philippines as becoming into “an aircraft carrier of the US” due to the expanded American military presence with EDCA sites and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The signing of the bases agreement in 1947 allowed the US 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 US 10 more years extending the US military presence in the country beyond September 1991. The US offered $203 million a year in compensation.

An impassioned debate ensued in which the bases were attacked as a symbol of the country’s continued colonial-like dependency on the U.S and violations of sovereignty.

The bases were also seen 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 into the local economies of Olongapo and Angeles in addition to billions of dollars in U.S. aid that was tied to the bases.

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The Philippine Senate rejected on September 16, 1991 the proposed extension of the US 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 the establishment of 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 that the stationing of foreign troops in foreign bases or “Agreed Locations” must be through a treaty—not merely through an implementing executive agreement.

(Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail [email protected], or call 09175025808 or 09088665786.)