EDCA: Undermining our democracy and security

preme Court in 2014. Plus, the lack of provisions limiting where the US could access facilities and enabling the AFP to check if naval vessels docking carried nuclear weapons, banned under the Constitution.

Yet just a few weeks after espousing neutrality in China and Switzerland, Marcos abandoned it in February 2023, a month after he caved in to US pressure and dropped his first national security adviser Clarita Carlos, ending his planned review of EDCA, the Visiting Forces Agreement and even the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT). That led to talk in business circles that Washington threatened to expose Marcos wealth abroad (“How goes America’s agenda in the Philippines,” https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/11/12/opinion/ columns/how-goes-americas-agendain-the-philippines/1919352).

Whether that scuttlebutt is true or not, the President certainly reversed his neutral stance and his past opposition to EDCA. And zero explanation about his change of policy suggests it was never his wish. Also showing that opening nine EDCA bases to America was not to his liking is the absence of any mention in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July, even if that decision was cited worldwide as his most important action, recasting Asia’s geopolitical and security balance.

Turning to the other two democracy questions, EDCA clearly fails in consulting the people, especially affected communities. National leaders, officials and media have told Filipinos nothing about the dangers of attack on sites used by US forces. And while free and informed consent is required from locals for mining ventures, not so for far more dangerous EDCA bases (“Deception and disregard for democracy — CBCP,” https://tinyurl.com/yeymdpyt).

The third question of how EDCA operations affect our sovereignty will be tackled with defense issues on March 17. It’s not pretty, either.