Imee seeks Senate review of defense cooperation agreement with US

Senator Imee Marcos on Monday filed a Senate resolution seeking a review of the Enhanced Defense Corporation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States.

Marcos filed Senate Resolution 299 urging a review of the validity and implementation of the EDCA.

Inked in April 2014, the EDCA is a supplement to the Visting Forces Agreement (VFA) that President Rodrigo Duterte is now seeking to terminate.

The agreement provides that the US and the Philippines will improve their individual and collective capacities to resist armed attacks through joint military training and security cooperation exercises, among others.

It provides for the US troops’ use of Philippine military facilities and an increased rotational presence in the country.

Marcos said the EDCA must be reviewed as it “indirectly allows the US military to skirt the constitutional ban on foreign bases in the Philippines and makes the country a potential target of America’s adversaries.”

The senator also said that the agreement has made US troops a “permanent presence” in Philippine territory, which violates a provision in the EDCA stating that the US would not establish any permanent presence or base in the country.

Marcos earlier warned that the termination of the VFA may cause the Philippines to lose custody of US Lance Corporal Joseph Pemberton, who killed transgender woman Jennifer Laude in 2014. —NB, GMA News