By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
IN the Facebook wall of Dennis Carcia, musician, advertising executive, painter and Abante columnist, there’s a picture of Obama signaling something with two fingers.
Dennis captioned it: “EDCA:I can summarize the agreement in two words- NO RENTAL. “
The post elicited a comment from Noy Dy-Liacco: “I can do it in one: FREE!
The banter is a spoof of the TV musical game show “Name the Tune.”
EDCA is Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, a document so detestable it makes a mockery of the Philippine Constitution and ridicules Philippine sovereignty.
When we read the EDCA signed by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg on the day that Obama arrived for a two-day state visit, our immediate reaction was to line up those responsible for EDCA against the wall so we can tell the Filipino people: “Here are the officials who sold us out again to the United States.”
Who are they?
The Philippine panel was headed by Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino. Members included The Ambassador Lourdes Yparraguirre, Ambassador J. Eduardo Malaya, Justice Department Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, and DND Assistant Secretary for strategic assessments Raymund Jose Quilop.
We all know that the panel was getting instructions from the Del Rosario and Gazmin. The two cabinet secretaries reported to President Aquino and nothing in EDCA was without the approval of the chief executive.
At the start of the negotiations, the DFA representative in the panel was Assistant Secretary Carlos “King” Sorreta, considered an expert in American affairs. Early this year, Sorreta was removed from the panel and Yparraguirre, ambassador to Austria and Malaya, ambassador to Malaysia were brought in.
The talk in the DFA was that Sorreta was opposing a number of items in the draft agreement which he felt were in blatant violation of Philippine sovereignty. Del Rosario and Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose L. Cuisia Jr., who were willing to give wholeheartedly what the Americans wanted, were annoyed with Sorreta’s stand.
A source said, Sorreta was heard to comment during the negotiations: “I think we should put the country’s interest ahead of personal business interests.” Del Rosario and Cuisia were businessmen before joining foreign service.
Now Sorreta is relegated to the Foreign Service Institute.
EDCA is a basing agreement. No amount of euphemism by Malaya and other officials will cure the Constitutional violation caused by this agreement. The worse about it is that those American bases are within the Philippine military camps!
The “Agreed Locations”, as what EDCA calls the U.S. bases within the military camps, will not be accessible to Philippine officials without the consent of the Americans.
EDCA states that “United States forces shall have the control over the access to and disposition of such prepositioned materiel and shall have unencumbered right to move such prepositioned materiel at any time from the territory of the Philippines.”
EDCA also stated that “United States forces are authorized to exercise all rights and authority within the Agreed Locations that are necessary for their operational control or defense, including taking appropriate measures to protect United States forces and United States contractors.”
One of the elements of a State is sovereignty – the supreme right of the state to command obedience within the state.
With EDCA, the Philippines has waived its sovereignty over parts of its territory. Without sovereignty over our whole territory, what are we?
And we are granting this for free.
Actually “sell out” is not an accurate term because we are giving the Philippine to the U.S. for free. “Without rental” is the term used in EDCA.
Some said since the Aquino government has discarded all pretenses of being an American lackey, it should have allowed the U.S. to establish again their military bases in the country and negotiated for a good price.
Former senator Rene Saguisag has a better suggestion: Let the U.S. build a military base in Ayungin Shoal.
There are many more detestable provisions in EDCA. Hopefully, that would be brought out to the public in the Senate inquiry (not for ratification) that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV called for.
