Official Gazette director did his job by publishing the EDCA; OG copy not signed, here
The official copy of the Ph-US EDCA in the Official Gazette is not signed
mlq3 , our dear Manolo (Usec Manolo Quezon III) did his job: his functions as Official Gazette (OG) director is to publish all official enactments; and he did just that, competently. we should thank him. i’m guessing that after not being given a signed copy, he used his acumen and was able to get a copy of the agreement – here it is, it’s not signed (normally, the official copies of official enactments published officially are signed, and every page, initialled). I rendered the OG pdf file into jpeg format to be uploadable, here it is, so you can see, ten pages, “Ph-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement” (still in quotation marks as far as this blog post is concerned, since those terms are really euphemisms and do not embrace the content — recall the use of the euphemism “enhanced interrogation techniques”, investigated by US Congress committees on the treatment of detainees in the Guantanamo prisons; “enhanced interrogation techniques” being officially known as torture in the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.)
What is the status of an unsigned copy being published by the Official Gazette? This is the official copy, the Official Gazette being, by law, the recognized repository of official enactments — any alterations, omitted provisions, hidden provisions, in other copies are intercalations. (intercalations! punishable under the Revised Penal Code! — nakakainis na ang mga nagtago/ nagtatago ng kopya nito. Normally, you could issue the Defense Department thru the Defense Secretary, and the Foreign Affairs Department, the Executive Secretary, and the Palace a demand letter asking that a copy be furnished you within 24 hours otherwise you will avail of remedies under the law, etc. … )
Anyway. here they are. thank you, Manolo, for performing your duty: Here are the unsigned pages constituting the official copy:
After the Aquino administration and the U.S. State Department used the Marcosian tactic of keeping official enactments a secret by making the provisions of the “Ph-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement” top secret for two days even after the agreement has been signed, publicly, with no explanation why the provisions were not accessible to the public (the dictator Marcos had secret presidential decrees that contained short-cuts of criminal procedure and penal provisions that military and government prosecutors pulled out in the middle of habeas corpus proceedings to keep political prisoners in jail; not even the U.P. Law Center had copies of such secret decrees), finally, the Official Gazette (c/o Manolo Quezon III) uploaded a PDF file of the agreement last night. Here it is, in this link:
(Updated) US-Ph Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, full text please, guide for reporters (first posted at 11:40am)
The full text of the US-Ph Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement has not been officially uploaded in any government site even after it has been signed. The negotiations were shrouded in secrecy and no one was ever given a copy – not even the Senate President or the Speaker of the House or any defense committee member of both houses. Perhaps the first order of business is to upload the official copy.
Based on the speeches and the DFA-released “30 Questions on the Pact” published by interaksyon.com , the agreement allows U.S. military troops, ships, and aircraft full access to military bases in the Philippines – FOR FREE. (Even the dictator Marcos charged rent for the rejected U.S. military bases; euphemistically called military aid by the U.S. government. At least, charging rent was an act of sovereignty and ownership.)
The U.S. government will also be allowed to construct facilities and infrastructure on said bases, upon consent of the Military Defense Board, according to the DFA-released primer. This means the U.S. military will be occupying and be in full, actual possession of those bases or parts of those basescovered by the agreement. For ten years. The agreement is for ten years. Libre din po iyon, walang bayad, no additional contracts or agreements — they will just do some construction there as allowed by the EDCA. An inexperienced lawyer in a new law office in Binondo would have negotiated a better deal.
Construction of facilities and infrastructure on the land is actual and full possession of the land, stupid. This is also in actual and full violation of Art. 18, Sec. 25 of the 1987 Constitution which states that: “After the expiration in 1991 of the Agreement between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of America concerning Military Bases, foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowedin the Philippines except under atreaty duly concurred in by the Senate xxx and recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State” (underscoring supplied) — the EDCA being a mere executive agreement signed by the Philippine Defense Secretary and the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines.
The EDCA also allows the storage of weapons not under our control, as follows: (DFA-released 30 questions and answers on the pact) “3. How will these objectives be achieved? We are currently holding joint training exercises xxx . To improve on the above, we intend to undertake additional cooperation by way of (1) Construction of facilities and infrastructure upgrades; and (2) Storage and prepositioning of defense and HADR equipment, supplies, and materiél. 4. Where will the construction and prepositioning take place? These will take place in designated areas within a few AFP bases to be agreed upon by both Parties. xxx”
(to be continued, i’m waiting for the official copy to be uploaded)
