Stronger Philippines?

Since ancient times humanity have developed different ways to defend itself from different threats to survive - from making tree houses to constructing walled cities to forming alliances-. History had witness the rise and fall of civilizations trying to defend themselves for survival.

Now, the Republic of the Philippines is in the middle of modernizing its military force with the help of it's defense ally, The United States of America, through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

But what is E.D.C.A?

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, E.D.C.A is an agreement between the Philippines and the United States which envisioned in furtherance the Philippine-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty. Its purpose is to promote interoperability between the Republic of the Philippines and The United States of America, modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and strengthening its external defense especially maritime security and maritime domain awareness, and lastly Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster response.

After reading through the provisions of E.D.C.A, I agree that the agreement is beneficial to the republic, for now.

Why? First, the security of our Nation. As we all know, it is the duty and responsibility of the state to protect its freedom and its people and with E.D.C.A the Philippines will strengthen its capabilities for external and territorial defense by continuing to work with its treaty ally in a mutually beneficial way in line with what is allowed by the Philippine Constitution.

Second, Jobs. The Agreement will benefit the Philippines economically through jobs and other economic opportunities in the construction activities in the Agreed Locations and procurement of local goods and supplies by the US military and staff.

Third, the development of humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Everyone remembered the aftermath of Yolanda, the slow response of the our national government to the Yolanda effort but we can't really completely blame the government, it was really hard that time and besides, now the government is holding a joint training, such as the Balikatan, and undertaking humanitarian assistance and disaster relief cooperation activities. With E.D.C.A, it promises to improve such activities by way of construction of facilities and infrastructure upgrades; and Storage and pre-positioning of defense and HADR equipment, supplies and material.

But in the end these are just promises. We don't know whether the agreement is a boon or not until its full actual implementation but for now, let us support such promises for a stronger Philippines.