What you see, what you get

Trust President Rodrigo Duterte to tell the nation the truth about the United States keeping arms depots in the Philippines and turning military camps into American bases, since he was referring to the committed facilities under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed during the term of former President Noynoy Aquino.

Mr. Duterte is entirely the opposite of the completely opaque Aquino.

Mr. Duterte had sounded off the Americans, who are at the negotiating table with their Filipino counterparts, about the need for compensation to retain the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). The President had threatened to revoke the agreement over a spat on the continued interference of some American officials on the President’s policies, which came to a head after the cancelation of Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa’s visa.

“Do you know that there are so many depots that there (are) many arms stationed in the Philippines by America?” Mr. Duterte said in his weekly televised address.

“And do you know that they are slowly converting Subic into an American base?” the President said, referring to the former US naval base in Subic Bay that Washington left in 1992 after senators in a historic vote repealed the 1947 Military Bases Agreement, which was the basis for the hosting of several foreign military facilities, mainly Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base.

Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Panfilo Lacson slammed as “extortion” Duterte’s demand in which both chorused in synchronicity as if both were pulled by a string.

In a tweet that he has since deleted, Lacson, who heads the Senate Committee on National Defense, had said that “one cannot put a price tag on the value of the VFA,” and that the Philippines was “not a nation of extortionists.”

The trouble with the several military agreements that the country has, mainly EDCA, is their many hidden provisions.

EDCA is considered a treaty by the Philippines but is considered by the US government as a mere executive agreement.

Prior to the 2016 polls, the United States through then Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed that for some time, joint sea patrols of Philippines and American ships were conducted in the South China Sea right after the SC affirmed the legality of EDCA.

Carter then also bared that American forces have already been deployed in local military camps that the administration of the US lapdog Aquino never announced.

Some 200 airmen in a contingent of 300 were part of a quick reaction unit that could suit up with American aircraft for battle.

Troops and ground attack aircraft remain in the country “temporarily” through the EDCA provisions.

The 200 airmen, Carter then referred to, were stationed at Clark Air Base, which used to host 20,000 personnel prior to the base’s closure in 1991, after it suffered catastrophic damage from Mount Pinatubo’s eruption.

They will deploy from various bases in the Pacific to support five A-10C Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base, in South Korea; three HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters from the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, Japan; and a MC-130H Combat Talon II special operations aircraft.

Among the camps where the Americans have depots, apparently as a result of EDCA, are Antonio Bautista Air Base, located near Puerto Princesa City, which is strategically very close to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea; Basa Air Base, which was originally constructed by the US Army Air Corps before the Second World War; Fort Magsaysay, which is the largest military installation in the Philippines, and is one of the primary training areas of the Philippine Army; Lumbia Air Base in Mindanao, which is connected to a civilian airport; and the Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base on Mactan Island, which was originally built by the US Air Force.

The Constitution bars the presence of foreign military bases, troops, or facilitates on Philippine soil, but EDCA went around the provision by allowing the storing of equipment and the rotational presence of foreign troops in local camps.

Mr. Duterte, while continuously railing against the setup with the Americans, will have to honor agreements entered into by the previous regime.

It remains that there is a crying need for the review or even abrogation of the lopsided agreements with the United States.

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EDCA went around the provision by allowing the storing of equipment and the rotational presence of foreign troops in local camps.

“The trouble with the several military agreements that the country has, mainly EDCA, are their many hidden provisions.