A WELTER of domestic issues has covered from public view the real issues that should concern all Filipinos. Thanks to the government's obsessive preoccupation with the antics of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte, it has found no time to look into the all-important foreign policy and national security issues like the presence of a US military Task Force Ayungin in Palawan, for purposes best known (if not only) to the Americans. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced this during his recent visit without supplying any details.<\/p>\r\r
The Marcos government has not talked to the nation about it, which means that either it knows nothing about it or it has chosen to hide it from us. I hope that when Congress finally gets done with its quad committee and blue ribbon inquiries into Duterte's drug war and the vice president's confidential funds, it will find the time and the inclination to take a serious look into this issue.<\/p>\r\r
National Security Adviser Eduardo A\u00f1o has confirmed Austin's announcement but said the task force's operation is purely \"internal to the US.\" If A\u00f1o has been quoted correctly, and if I do not interpret him wrongly, he is saying that although the US forces are based within Philippine territory, their operations are known only to the Americans and not shared with the Philippine government. This seems to suggest the Philippines has become a US protectorate, and the US exercises extra-territorial rights within it.<\/p>\r\r
In this column, I have tirelessly pointed out that Sec. 25 of Article XVIII of the Philippine Constitution expressly prohibits, after the expiration of the US-Philippine Military Bases Agreement in 1991, the presence of foreign military bases, troops or facilities on Philippine soil except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate and when Congress so requires, ratified by a majority of the votes cast by the people in a national referendum held for that purpose and recognized as a treaty by the other contracting state. Not once have I heard the government say a military site used by friendly forces to frustrate a foreign hegemon needs no constitutional foundation.<\/p>\r\r
Yet in naked violation of this express prohibition, the late former President Noynoy Aquino signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) in 2014 and granted the US five operational sites inside Philippine military bases in which to pre-position its forces, war materiel and facilities for possible use against China in war. To these five sites President Marcos Jr. added four more strategically located sites in 2023. I enumerated all nine sites in my last column; some Senate sources, however, tell us there are now 16 or so such sites.<\/p>\r\r
Now, if EDCA is a naked violation of the Constitution, what is the constitutional basis of a US military Task Force Ayungin in Palawan whose operations, according to our national security adviser, are purely internal to the US and beyond the scrutiny of the Philippine government?<\/p>\r\r
Ayungin (or Second Thomas) Shoal is where the Philippine and Chinese coast guards have been running into each other, where the Chinese coast guard has been using water cannons and military-grade lasers to try to prevent their Philippine counterpart from resupplying the handful of Marines standing guard at the decrepit naval vessel Sierra Madre berthed at the shoal to serve as a symbol of Philippine sovereignty in the contested sea lanes.<\/p>\r\r
The use of \"Ayungin\" to identify the US task force has raised speculations that its real purpose is to protect the Sierra Madre from possible Chinese seizure. According to reports, the task force was formed after the June 17, 2024, Ayungin Shoal incident where a Filipino soldier lost a thumb during a scuffle between the Filipino and Chinese coast guard personnel. China has been demanding that the rotting vessel be taken out. If this speculation is correct, the US task force's continued presence in the area could either de-escalate the situation or make it worse. If the task force serves as a deterrence, the tension would ease, but if China sees the task force's presence as a provocation, it could take the conflict to the next level.<\/p>\r\r
Under the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), an attack on Philippine troops, ships and aircraft in the Pacific would be dangerous to the peace and safety of the US and would compel it to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes. Throughout the water-cannoning and laser incidents against the Philippine Coast Guard, some war hawks were hoping something would happen to trigger the operation of the MDT in favor of the Philippines. The known presence of the US military task force in Palawan could produce either a cooling effect on the situation or the exact opposite.<\/p>\r\r
At the onset of the Trump administration in the US, I suggest that in the national interest, the two houses of our Congress open an inquiry into this particular issue so that our people would at least know how we got into this mess and how we might, if there is still a way, get ourselves out of it.<\/p>\r\r
A WELTER of domestic issues has covered from public view the real issues that should concern all Filipinos. Thanks to the government's obsessive preoccupation with the antics of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte, it has found no time to look into the all-important foreign policy and national security issues like the presence of a US military Task Force Ayungin in Palawan, for purposes best known (if not only) to the Americans. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced this during his recent visit without supplying any details.
The Marcos government has not talked to the nation about it, which means that either it knows nothing about it or it has chosen to hide it from us. I hope that when Congress finally gets done with its quad committee and blue ribbon inquiries into Duterte's drug war and the vice president's confidential funds, it will find the time and the inclination to take a serious look into this issue.
