“This treaty and the US have not really helped in AFP modernization.
It only enhanced its dependence and derogated Philippine sovereignty.” –
Satur Ocampo
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) is said to be the
“mother of all unequal military treaties and agreements” the Philippines
has entered into with the US since achieving independence in 1946. In
its 60 years of existence, it has proved useless for the Philippines,
said various critics. For Satur Ocampo, president of Makabayan, the
MDT’s call to respond or assist each other, “subject to Constitutional
processes,” has not been tested until 9/11. But he noted that the US did
not invoke the MDT even then, as it had called for a “coalition of the
willing instead.” Yet, the MDT remains in force up to now.
According to geopolitics expert Prof. Roland Simbulan, some examples
of the unequal agreements inked to “operationalize” the MDT are the
US-RP Military Assistance Agreement which was renamed into US-RP
Military Advisory Group in the 50s, the Visiting Forces Agreement and
the Mutual Logistics Servicing Agreement. He said the US military bases
agreement, the renewal of which the Philippine Senate rejected amid a
strong campaign for its abrogation conducted by progressive groups
twenty years ago, in 1991, also traced its roots from the MDT.
(Read: A symbol of subservience, a milestone in the struggle for national sovereignty)
Satur Ocampo recalled that in 1991 when the Philippine Senate
disapproved the extension of the military bases agreement, there were
proposals already to abolish the MDT because it is “not applicable
anymore.”
Activists marked the 20th anniversary of Senate rejection of US military bases.(Photo by Gregorio B. Dantes Jr. / bulatlat.com)
The MDT was invoked recently by Malacañang when the Spratlys issue heated up, said Ocampo. But the fact that current President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III had to ask for US military assistance to bolster its confidence in asserting territorial claims over a group of islets also revealed the weaknesses of the country’s armed forces, thus reviving as well the calls to abolish the “useless,” “no longer applicable” MDT..... MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/09/16/after-60-years-us-rp-defense-pact-proved-useless-disadvantageous-to-philippines/
2 comments:
pabagsak na naman itong si kalbong agila. habang may lakas pa ito ay ibasura na iyang MDT na iyan para naman masabi ng saling-lahi na hindi naman pala tayo ZOMBIE na eh TUTA pa. lol.
"At the time, Simbulan recalled, the pro-bases advocates who argued for its retention, including the late president Corazon Aquino, the current president’s mother, cited how “terminating the bases agreement is tantamount to killing the MDT.” The arguments revolved on the bases treaty being an example of “operationalizing the mother treaty,” which is the MDT. The same line of argument would later be used in justifying the VFA and MLSA, Simbulan also noted."
"Satur Ocampo recalled that in 1991 when the Philippine Senate disapproved the extension of the military bases agreement, there were proposals already to abolish the MDT because it is “not applicable anymore.”
"But the senators who claimed to support proposals to abrogate the MDT did not push for it. The neglect allowed for the drawing up of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which the Senate approved in 1999. Ocampo recalled that the “proponents of the presence of US military troops here had used the MDT to approve the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). He described the VFA as “an extension of the MDT.” Progressive organizations dubbed the VFA and the MLSA as agreements that circumvent the earlier senate rejection of the bases extension."
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