MANILA, Philippines — The Senate foreign affairs panel is conducting Wednesday a general inquiry on the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the US.
Among the guests invited to the hearing are Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Andres Centino, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and Defense officer-in-charge Carlito Galvez Jr.
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The addition of four additional sites in Cagayan, Isabela and Palawan which US troops would have access to under the agreement has sparked warnings from China that this would destabilize regional peace and even jeopardize the welfare of overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan.
Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba and residents in his province have protested against the establishment of EDCA sites there, which they fear would drag them into the brewing conflict between US and China over Taiwan.
This concern is shared by Senate foreign affairs panel chairperson Sen. Imee Marcos, sister of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. whose administration has shifted away from China and back to the US in a marked departure from his predecessor’s foreign policy.
The Department of Foreign Affairs assured that locals living near EDCA sites will benefit from their establishment as this would supposedly spur economic activity, especially infrastructure development.
Both officials from the Philippines and the US have asserted that the EDCA sites are more about capacity building to respond to natural and humanitarian disasters.
Watch the Senate inquiry LIVE at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.