By: Rahel U
MANILA, Philippines— Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is being questioned by the Supreme Court, for the meantime, there will be no troops from the United States will be coming to the Philippines.
MANILA, Philippines— Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is being questioned by the Supreme Court, for the meantime, there will be no troops from the United States will be coming to the Philippines.
In an interview with
reporters on Friday, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia said “Until we
put it into force then we cannot really see any [troop] movement. The lawyers
will have to look at what can be done in the meantime.”
He further said that
they do not want to give the impression that they are not respecting the fact
that there is a case filed so they cannot proceed with the implementation of
the agreement until its case will be resolved. He also said that they would
like to build up their military capacity and minimum credible defense position
as early as possible.
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| Photo credit: usatoday |
The EDCA agreement was
signed by the Philippines and US last April, two days before the visit of of US President Barack Obama’s in Manila. The
agreement pursues to add the amount of US troops that can come into the country
and participate in the said defense
program on a rotating basis.
There have been at least
three appeals asking the high court to declare the EDCA as unconstitutional for
violating the Philippine constitution’s provisions on national sovereignty and
territorial integrity.
Cuisia said some impact
of the Supreme Court petitions will slow down in the implementation of the EDCA
while they are hoping that it will not for too long.
“We hope to benefit from
this agreement particularly the modernization of the AFP. We asked the US to
help us, but they cannot move much until we resolve those issues. We hope that
it will not take too long,” he said.
