WON: Philippine Foreign Relations

Last April, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement was signed by our Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and the US Ambassador Philip Goldberg. The agreement, which plans to strengthen our Military Power with their (United States) assistance, and at the same time to build up our foreign relation with them. Supporters of EDCA tells us that it will benefit us, especially in protecting our sovereignty over the disputed islands at the West Philippine Sea, however, are we certain that the agreement will reinforce our foreign relation with US, or does it really support the US-China relations?

On the Supreme Court oral arguments this past week, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay introduces the stand of the Executive Department on implementing EDCA. One of which was that the agreement will help our National Defense under the Mutual Defense Treaty, which is where EDCA is implemented upon. However, Justice Carpio pointed out, that EDCA (under MDT) cannot really guarantee any aid from the US when we need to defend our Philippine territory on the West Philippine Sea. Solicitor General Florin Hilbay did not expressly concur on it, but it was evident that he also agrees to it.

As we all know, China is one of the biggest holder of US Debt, amounting to around $1.3 trillion today, and their (US-China) foreign trading plays a big part on their economies. US and China too, has their own military agreements, most of them is to avoid military conflict. These are the facts which shows that the US are more inclined to prevent tensions with China. EDCA was not really as beneficial for us, for our National Interest, for our foreign relations with the US, but rather it is more beneficial to the US-China relationship.