MERGED: All About RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty/ VFA-MLSA and Related Issues

[gareb]

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"The native is an oppressed person whose permanent dream is to become the persecutor" - Frantz Fanon

[gareb]

Senators mulling defense pact review amid emerging threats


SENATORS YESTERDAY mulled the review of the country’s military alliance with the United States to better address current security issues.

“For me, we should now review the [Mutual Defense Treaty], including the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). It needs to be visited because it was agreed on a long time ago,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told reporters in an interview.

Manila and Washington on Wednesday pledged stronger defense ties after 60 years during the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton to the country. The VFA allows the US to station troops in the country, mostly in Mindanao, in the absence of a basing agreement after the Senate in 1991 rejected a proposed extension of US military facilities.

Mr. Enrile noted that a congressional oversight body was created to review the agreements “so that if there are any disadvantages that we suffer, then we should correct them.”
He further said that the arrangement “does not call for automatic assistance by either party to any problem arising against the others.”

The MDT, signed in Washington on Aug. 30, 1951, states that both nations will support each other if either one were to be attacked by an external group. It, however, does not specify the type of support.

For his part, Senator Gregorio “Gringo” B. Honasan II, defense committee chairman, said the treaty review has been delayed.

“Dapat kahapon pa ginawa yung review [The review should have been done a long time ago,]” he said.

Calls for a review of the treaty come amid the US’ assertion of its influence in the region in light of increasing Chinese military presence in the disputed South China Sea.

On Tuesday, Senator Loren B. Legarda, who chairs the foreign relations committee, said that a review of the MDT and VFA could commence after next year’s budget has been ratified.

“A review of the MDT to include the VFA may be made after the budget deliberations,” she said.

The review will involve the secretaries of National Defense and Foreign Affairs, people from the academe and civil society. -- A. S. O. Alegado

[elord]

so how does attacking iraq affect the oil price?, dont tell me to watch damn hippie video!!, you've seen the video you share it to us, so we can munch on those info and see it's worth..

OT:
sukad pa na kat-on ko ug drive ang gasolina wala dyud na mo ingon ni decrease ang value sigi ra na ug increase. Example Ultron Touring way back before 2001 is around 160 pesos but now it's 220 pesos. Dili ra Iraq ang supplier bya naa pa lain Country

I agree nga atleast mo balik ang US Base dire sa Pinas. Para ang threat sa China ma minimize opinion ra na naku and naa more jobs (wala labot ang prostitution)

[hlongimanus]

The United States on Friday welcomed the Philippines' offer to allow more US troops on its territory, saying it would boost US power in Asia, and assured it was not seeking to re-establish bases in the former colony. The US had maintained two military bases in the Philippines after World War II: Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base in Central Luzon. The two bases were closed in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate – on Sept. 16, 1991 – voted to reject a new treaty for the bases.



Please post your comments...Thanks


Mods, palihug nalng merge or close kng naa nay ing-ani nga topic. Thanks.

[kuyabog]

Why not?

I'd feel safer with the US military presence here than with the Chinese army.

[vladmire]

they should put their base in mindanao...

[kuyabog]

they should put their base in mindanao...

though not official but they already have one right now as we type here

[zener_101]

aron mataha ang mga trespassers....

[balipseyev]

They have a forward base in Zamboanga, and their ships frequently visit General Santos... They always have ships moored in Sarangani Bay...

I'm in favor of USA deploying surveillance drones in WPS basta i-share lang nila ang data sa AFP...

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/01...loy-spy-planes

[gareb]

In The Know: US military presence in PH
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:29 am | Friday, January 27th, 2012


American soldiers numbering between 500 and 600 are based indefinitely in the Philippines.

They belong to the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P), which works alongside the Armed Forces of the Philippines in a strictly noncombatant role.

The US troops, stationed in Mindanao, advise and share information and conduct joint civil-military operations with the AFP, said Edilberto Adan, executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement.
Some of them are in Manila performing support roles such as procurement, Adan said.

In 1992, the Philippine Senate voted to end US military presence in the country.

But according to J. Eduardo Malaya, the then spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement allowed the continued presence of the JSOTF-P although the US forces are not allowed to engage in combat operations.

Under review

Malaya added that the presence of US troops was authorized by the Philippine government under the Mutual Defense Board of the two countries.

The Aquino administration has been reviewing the Visiting Forces Agreement, a move made in response to Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s call for its abrogation.

Much of the local objection to the agreement centers on the constitutional provision prohibiting the presence of foreign military bases, troops and facilities in the Philippines, “except under a treaty” ratified by the Senate and the people in a referendum and “recognized as a treaty by the other contracting state.”

The Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 11, 2009, that the Visiting Forces Agreement had been duly concurred in by the Senate and recognized as a treaty by Washington. The high court also noted that it was “simply an implementing agreement to the main RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951.”

In March 2010, the high court again upheld the legality of the agreement, which Washington regards as an executive agreement that does not require approval by the US Senate. Ana Roa, Inquirer Research