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| Image: Flickr User - US Embassy Manila |
By Prashanth Parameswaran
Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
The Philippine Supreme Court finally declared that a new defense pact signed between the Philippines and the United States nearly two years earlier is constitutional, local media outlets reported Tuesday.
The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) – a pact inked in April 2014 between Washington and Manila that, among other things, would give U.S. troops and equipment wide access to Philippine military bases on a rotational basis – has been languishing in the face of a constitutional challenge in the Southeast Asian state. Though Philippine officials had been assuring outside observers that EDCA’s approval was a question of when rather than if, several deadlines had passed without a ruling into 2016.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court finally voted 10-4 to uphold the constitutionality of the agreement. Three justices – Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Arturo Brion, Teresita Leonardo-De Castro and Marvic Leonen – dissented from the ruling, while Francis Jardeleza inhibited.
With that, the Court resolved the most contentious concern by opponents of the pact: that EDCA is actually a new treaty that requires Senate concurrence by a two-thirds majority, rather than an executive agreement in line with the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty as the administration of Philippine president Benigno Aquino III has been arguing.
Read the full story at The Diplomat