Duterte says EDCA not signed by PHL president, may ask US forces to leave

President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Sunday reminded the US that the Enhanced Cooperation and Defense Agreement (EDCA) does not have a presidential signature, and that US forces may be asked to leave the Philippines soon.

"I would like to remind the Americans, itong EDCA... does not bear the signature of the President of the Republic of the Philippines," he said during the opening ceremony of the Masskara Festival in Bacolod City.

Under the EDCA, the US will be allowed to build structures; store as well as pre-position weapons, defense supplies and materiel; and station troops, civilian personnel and defense contractors, transit and station vehicles, vessels, and aircraft within the Philippines' territory for a period of 10 years. It was signed by US Ambassador Philip Goldberg and then-Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin in April 2014. The Supreme Court re-affirmed the agreement's legality July this year.

Duterte noted that the EDCA was not signed by then-President Benigno S.C Aquino III.

"Better think twice now because I will be asking you to leave the Philippines altogether," he stressed.

This comes after the President in September said that the joint military exercises between the Philippines and the US would be the last under his term.

"I don't know if that treaty would take some form. But in my term, yes. I would not be using my entitlements as commander-in-chief. I would simply say that that is the foreign policy," he added.

Duterte also earlier said he was about to go past a point of no return in terms of the relationship of the Philippines with the United States and that he had sought help from Russia regarding the matter.

This is in contrast to assurances made by Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. to US Secretary of State John Kerry in June that the Philippines would fully implement the EDCA under the Duterte administration.

Duterte in his speech on Sunday also noted that he may ask US forces to leave to be able to continue peace talks with rebel forces in Mindanao who were only open to negotiation once the foreign forces are out of the country.

This then prompted Duterte to tell the rebel forces that "there may be a time the Americans will leave Mindanao." — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News