Tough act

Whenever caught in heavy traffic, I try not to waste my time moping over inertia. Just the other day, we were caught in the middle of protest rally of militants in front of the United States Embassy along Roxas Boulevard. The militants led by left-leaning Bayan were trying to dramatize their objections to the forthcoming state visit here of US President Barack Obama.

Being among its chief allies here in Asia, President Obama is coming to the Philippines for a brief state visit this Monday and leaves the next day back to the US.

The rallyists were again vehemently opposing the much-vaunted return of the permanent American military presence in the Philippines two decades after the former US bases were removed here. They were voicing concerns over deals that went behind closed doors during negotiations on the so-called enhanced defense cooperation agreement.

Among other things, they charged this new defense deal would again lead to de facto return of the US military bases in the country.

The new defense deal will be forged on top of the existing Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) of 1999 and the existing Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT, 1951).

Although negotiated as an executive agreement, former President Joseph Estrada had the VFA submitted to the Senate for concurrence and ratification. Ironically, Estrada opted to take this course of action even if he was among the so-called “Magnificent 13 Senators” who voted in 1991 not to renew the country’s military bases treaty with the US.

Under the country’s 1987 Constitution, a treaty with another country must pass two-thirds of the Senate for concurrence. The new defense pact with the US is being billed as an executive agreement so that it won’t have to be submitted to the Senate for concurrence. Worse, the left claims the formal signing of this new defense pact with the US is being timed for the state visit of President Obama. The leftist groups accused President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III of violating the very Constitution his late mother left as a legacy to the Filipino nation’s return to democracy.

There were about less than a hundred protesters but they were blocking the entire southbound lane of  Roxas Boulevard in last Tuesday’s rally. Naturally, almost the entire forces of the Manila Police Department (MPD) were deployed there to protect the US Embassy from the mob. The MPD has been training for weeks to prepare for contingencies such as this protest rally.

However, the rally the other day looked more like a dress rehearsal to impress the Obama advance party now in Manila. Nothing is left to chance by security-conscious Americans.

Though there was no rally yesterday, we were stalled in traffic anew. To spend my time wisely, I was again checking the latest news feeds on my Twitter and Facebook accounts by mobile phone. While browsing, I found very interesting posts from former Cabinet Secretary Rafael Alunanl III.

Now a very active netizen and blogger, Alunan also writes a regular column for BusinessWorld. Alunan used to be one of the Cabinet members of the late President Corazon Aquino as Secretary of the Department of Tourism (DOT).  He was official spokesman of the Philippine government panel during the VFA negotiations .

Alunan conducted an informal survey from among his 2,653 Facebook “friends” and got quite a good sample size in responses.

Alunan posted this in his FB: “I’m running a quick survey. Please choose A or B.

A: Yes to America backstopping the Philippines versus China.

B: No to America backstopping the Philippines versus China.

“Here’s the meaning of ‘backstop’ just to make sure we understand each other • ‘an emergency precaution or last resort’: the human operator has to act as the ultimate backstop when things go badly wrong. Backstop is not the primary effort but the last resort. That means the primary effort to defend oneself rests with the Philippines.”

The quick survey generated “overwhelming” votes for “A” as their answer, Alunan disclosed. His former fellow Cabinet member during Cory’s administration, ex-presidential chief legal counsel Adolf Azcuna, cast an “A” vote and explained why. Like Alunan, Azcuna is an active netizen in his own FB account. Azcuna is currently the chancellor of the Philippine Judicial Academy after his retirement from the high court.

True to form, the retired associate justice of the Supreme Court even wrote an explanation to his concurring vote: “But note that this A, as what is provided in our Mutual Defense Treaty. In case of outside attack on PH the US will defend us in accordance with its constitutional processes. So there will still be internal deliberation in their Congress. Under NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) an attack on a NATO member is deemed an attack on the US and warrants instant and immediate retaliation. This is the kind of defense agreement the late Claro M. Recto wanted for the Philippines but never got.”

In the last state visit to the US of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which I covered for The STAR, the Philippines was given a Non-NATO member status that binds as well as accords us the same obligations and benefits under this international defense pact.

So no amount of anti-US chants against the new defense deal can change these facts. On the other hand, no amount also of official assurances to the contrary from government officials of both the Philippines and the US can appease the leftist groups. As always, they are not convinced at all. So what else is new?

The anti-US bases rhetoric of leftist groups here will not get any support at all. This is especially more so now that the country has been under intense pressure to protect its territorial integrity over West Philippine Sea.

Greater US military presence in this part of the world is seen as a deterrent to China’s growing aggressive assertion of its nine-dash line claim on the South China Sea. But others see US military build-up in the Philippines as a magnet that will unnecessarily draw us into a war not of our making. As Azcuna correctly pointed out, MDT works both ways.

It’s a tough balancing act that P-Noy must try to keep on an even keel.