Locsin: Attack on Philippine vessels will activate Mutual Defense Treaty with US

An attack on Philippine vessels will trigger the activation of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the Philippines and the United States, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin, Jr. told a Senate hearing on Thursday.

The hearing tackled the impacts of the Philippines' military agreements with the United States — such as the MDT, the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement — and was prompted by President Rodrigo Duterte's threat to abrogate the VFA after the US government cancelled the US visa of his longtime ally, Senator Ronald dela Rosa, over the latter’s role in the government's bloody war on illegal drugs.

"Yes, an attack on our vessels will be a trigger to the MDT,” Locsin said in answer to a question by Senator Grace Poe.

The MDT was inked between the Philippines and US in 1951 where both parties agreed that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on either the Philippines and the US would be dangerous and that they would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.

The MDT also provides that an armed attack on either of the parties is defined as an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the parties, or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific or on its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.

"Before, it was just verbal. Now, it is in writing,” Locsin said, referring to the US commitment that the MDT will be enforced once the Philippines is attacked.

Poe welcomed this development, noting the incident where a Chinese vessel sank Philippine fishing boat Gem-Vir 1 with 22 Filipino crew members on board in June last year within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.

The 22 Filipino crew members were left to fend or themselves in the open sea for at least six hours before they were extended help by Vietnamese fishermen who happened to pass by them.

“That [commitment] is very crucial at this time, especially with our situation in the West Philippine Sea” Poe said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has earlier said that the MDT could be scrapped if it will remain vague. —KBK, GMA News