As far as Chinese President Xi Jinping is concerned, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the United States of America and the Philippines is a real thorn on his side. It tells him in no uncertain terms that China can’t always get away with what it does. After all, his country’s ongoing military shenanigans in the West Philippine Sea, and even in the airspace right above it, has already raised global diplomatic tensions to new heights of ugliness.
Signed and formalized in April 2014 by then Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and US Ambassador Philip Goldberg, EDCA provides an added layer of enforcement mechanisms to the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Also, it strengthens the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) in particular and the iron-clad commitment between the two allies as they both confront an ever-changing security situation in Southeast Asia and the greater Indo-Pacific region.
More concretely, this ever-changing security situation comes in the form of the recent menacing presence of Chinese warships and aircrafts near Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, in addition to militia vessels, openly challenging Philippine and American patrol planes at the start of their joint military drills this year, which is aimed at establishing a formidable mutual defense posture going forward.
At the heart of this major defense agreement is the mutual cooperation between the US and PH to develop their individual and collective capability to resist armed attacks, promote long-term modernization programs, help maintain and develop maritime security, and expand humanitarian assistance in response to natural disasters brought about by the changing weather.
But the full implementation of EDCA initially encountered some delays when then President Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office on June 30, 2016. His rancorous rhetoric against the Americans was made more obvious by the fact that he was quite enamored with China and going as far as allowing the latter to harass local fishermen from pursuing their fishing livelihood. Worse, he set aside the country’s victory over China in the arbitral tribunal.
Thankfully, his dysfunctional leadership and dangerous dalliances with Xi Jinping came to an end six years later on June 30, 2022 with the inauguration of Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. as the country’s 17th President. Today, the initial five EDCA sites in Palawan (Antonio Bautista Air Base), Pampanga (Basa Air base), Cebu, (Benito Ebuen Air Base), Nueva Ecija (Fort Magsaysay), and Cagayan de Oro (Lumbia Airport), have been reinforced with the additional four new sites – three in North Luzon facing Taiwan, and one in Palawan facing the South China Sea.
The two EDCA sites in Lal-lo Airport (Lal-lo, Cagayan) and the Camilo Osias Naval Base in Sta. Ana, Cagayan also serve to secure CEZA or the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (and Freeport) which was the brainchild of former Senate President and current Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile when he was a member of the House of Representatives who authored Republic Act 7922 otherwise known as the “Cagayan Special Economic Zone Act of 1995.”
Given its new strategic importance, both CEZA under its current Administrator and CEO Secretary Katrina Ponce Enrile and Cagayan Province are poised to become a major hub not only for economic and ecotourism activities, but also a valuable strategic national security outpost for the region and for the entire country.
And Xi Jinping is definitely not happy about it.
Revival of the 365 cCub
I will be organizing the revival of the old Intercon Hotel’s 365 Club which was founded in 1972 by the late newspaper columnist Teodoro ‘Ka Doroy’ Valencia at the Jeepney Coffee Shop of the now non-existent hotel.
His column ‘Over A Cup Of Coffee’ drew much readership at a time when social media was still a thing of the future. Fifty-three years after, many of the original habitues gone, including my late father Ariel Bocobo, and only a handful remain today like Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and opinion columnist Emil Jurado and a few more whose names escape me at the moment.
The first kaffeeklatsch gathering will be sometime right after the May elections and it will be held at the Holiday Inn in Makati, thanks to its senior catering and events manager Camille De Jesus.
I am awaiting the response of a would-be sponsor for individual coffee mugs for the regular attendees.
Those who are interested to attend may send me an email.
-o0o-
Random Memorandum: Former President Rodrigo Duterte likened himself to Adolf Hitler, stating he would be “happy to slaughter” drug addicts. This attracted international condemnation for human rights advocates and legal personalities here and abroad, hence his departure for the ICC at The Hague in the Netherlands.
-o0o-
Factoid: The statistics of motorcycle accidents occurring daily on the streets of Metro Manila are alarming, and the LTFRB must act on this motorcycle street menace immediately.
(Leslie Bocobo is a former Special Assistant to the Secretary at the Office of the Press Secretary, Malacanang, and a former Public Affairs Director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources)
Email: sleeplessinmyshuttle@yahoo.com
