Golez: My two cents worth: The discontinuance of exercises involving the participation of the marines and navy forces will neuter the MDT and the Balikatan as security blanket against external attack. The MDT will be virtually useless for our external defense without such exercises.
Those posing as the country's external threat must be smiling.
The SND has no mention of the future of the Philippines-US Mutual Defense Treaty. The government should firmly state whether it will continue because a big element of uncertainly has been injected by the President's statements about the MDT.
The EDCA requires a substantial amount of facilities improvement to be undertaken by the US, our treaty ally. How can we expect our treaty ally to undertake huge investments with that cloud of uncertainly hanging on the EDCA and even the MDT? EDCA would be meaningless without improvement in facilities stipulated in the EDCA provisions.
And finally, the MDT's purpose as a mutual defense arrangement will be tremendously reduced if the Balikatan exercises as announced will be limited to "drills on counter-terrorism, humanitarian response, special operations on counterterrorism, engineering projects, civic action." Those exercises are not for mutual defense.
The essence of Balikatan is preparation for a possible state enemy that will attack Philippine territory and not a terrorist group. MDT cannot be invoked in a terrorist attack. The MDT is clear that it is only for this kind of attacks: "whenever in the opinion of either of them the territorial integrity, political independence or security of either of the Parties is threatened by external armed attack in the Pacific." The exercises that address the said "external armed attack" are "the PHIBLEX amphibious exercises involving Marine troops and the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) drills of navy forces" which the SND said will be discontinued in the Balikatan exercises.
My two cents worth: The discontinuance of said exercises involving the participation of the marines and navy forces will neuter the MDT and the Balikatan as as security blanket against external attack. The MDT will be virtually useless for our external defense without such exercises.
Those posing as the country's external threat must be smiling.
Edca, Balikatan to continue – DND chief
MANILA, Philippines - The Balikatan exercise and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the US will continue but some bilateral military drills would be stopped, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday.
“Yearly, it will continue. What will remain are drills on counter-terrorism, humanitarian response, special operations on counterterrorism, engineering projects, civic action,” Lorenzana told reporters in Malacañang.
Lorenzana said the PHIBLEX amphibious exercises involving Marine troops and the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) drills of navy forces would be discontinued.
“Practically he (President Duterte) approved all our recommendations. The exercises will go on,” he said.
With regard to EDCA, Lorenzana said the agreement would not be abrogated. “(EDCA) will remain,” he said.
Last month, Duterte hinted at dropping EDCA, a deal that provides the US greater access to Philippine bases.
“I said ‘separate,’ separate, yes. You have the EDCA. Well, forget it if I stay here long enough,” the President said in a press briefing last Oct. 25.
Duterte said he only wants to see Filipino soldiers in the country. “I do not want to see any military man of any other nation except the Filipino soldiers. That’s what I want. That’s the long and short of it. I want an independent policy wherein I won’t be subservient to anyone,” he added.
Duterte had called for a review of EDCA, noting that the agreement did not have the signature of a Philippine president. The agreement wa
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