MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos must not be remiss in reminding both the US and China that the Philippines will not allow itself to be used to pursue their opposing interests in the region, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said yesterday.
Hontiveros said the country must not allow itself to be crushed between two “warring hegemons” and must continue to pursue a multilateral approach to foreign relations and, in the case of security, not only having partnerships and joint military activities with the US and China, but also other neighbors in the region and other naval powers.
“The best we can do is to keep on communicating both to China and the US that we want a peaceful, if not resolution of the conflict, at the very, very least status quo,” Hontiveros told CNN Philippines, referring to a war that may arise from a possible attempt by Beijing to take Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province, by force.
She warned there could be “intentional or real accidents” that could trigger an armed conflict in the region, including ones related to the territorial dispute over the South China Sea.
“We don’t want to arrive at that situation. We shouldn’t wait for it to happen but actively try to prevent it,” the senator said.
She cited President Marcos’ assurance that the new military sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) will not be used for offensive operations in the sense it is “faithful of the constitutional mandate of peace as the instrument of national policy or the abandonment of war as an instrument of national policy.”
“In general, EDCA is not the only solution to our problems. After all, the issues in the South China Sea involve more than just the US and China, and the disputes in these waters shouldn’t be settled only or even primarily by these two giant countries,” Hontiveros said.
She said beyond reminding the US and China of the country’s preference for peaceful means to resolve disputes, the government can work to mobilize other countries in the region for the same pro-active effort to cool tensions between the two giants, like forming a “coalition of the unwilling.”
“War is such a thing of the past. And we’d like to keep it that way,” Hontiveros said.
‘Misinformed’
President Marcos could have been “misinformed” or “he is misleading the Filipino people” on the true text of the EDCA, House Deputy Minority leader and ACT Teacher party-list Rep. France Castro said yesterday.
Castro underscored Malacañang should explain where the President was coming from when he said that the four new EDCA sites would not be used for offensive actions.
“We don’t understand where that pronouncement came from while it is clear in the text of EDCA that the United States has control over EDCA sites,” she added.
Castro pointed out that the role of the Filipino solder is to act as “security guards” outside of the sites because they are “not allowed to enter or take a peek of what is happening inside.”
She said the “second sentence is the main purpose of Par. 2” in the EDCA contract, that the “US can store weapons, ammunition and other war materiel and equipment in the agreed locations on the ground that it is intended to ‘enhance’ its defense capability.”
The lawmaker maintained that the EDCA “does not prohibit the use of these prepositioned armaments in covert or overt military operations in the Philippines or abroad.”
“This becomes clearer in the next paragraph where the US demands that the Philippines will have ‘no’ say at all on what these prepositioned armaments shall be ‘placed’ or where and how they will be deployed,” she added. – Sheila Crisostomo