Security Risks of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement Under The Marcos Jr. Administration by Rommel C. Banlaoi
November 21, 2022
Introduction:
(Eurasia Review) American Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Manila from her trip to Thailand after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit. Harris is scheduled to visit on Tuesday, November 22, the City of Puerto Princesa, Palawan where a US facility under Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is built facing the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
Earlier, Defense Department (DND) Officer-in-Charge Jose Faustino Jr. has announced the construction of five additional American military facilities in Philippine bases across Luzon to boost the implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). Locations of these new facilities have been identified: two in Cagayan and one each in Isabela, Palawan, and Zambales. The original five facilities built and being further developed are in Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan, Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Lumbia Airpot in Cagayan de Oro, and Benito Ebuen Air Base in Mactan, Cebu.
US Ambassador to the Philippines, Mary Kay Carlson, also disclosed the plan of Washington, DC to provide Manila $70 million worth of military assistance to the Philippines in the next two years to implement EDCA under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
Though Faustino has strongly stressed that EDCA sites are primarily earmarked for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response facilities, training facilities, warehouses and operation centers, these areas are some of the country’s top strategic locations that can effectively facilitate US military activities in major flash points of armed conflicts in Asia, particularly in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Straits and the Korean Peninsula.
Building American military facilities in Philippine territories amid worsening geopolitical rivalry between the US and China also raises the risks of the Philippines getting inevitably involved in the event of military conflicts between these two competing major powers.
The American Repossession of the Philippines by Walden Bello
March 4, 2023
Introduction:
(The Nation) When the news broke in early February that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had struck a deal allowing the United States to dramatically expand its military presence on the archipelago, many people reacted with surprise. After all, the US military’s relationship with the Philippines is a politically sensitive subject, and Marcos had made noises about staying out of the rapidly escalating conflict between the US and China that is fueling Washington’s buildup in the region. The announcement of the deal—in which the United States will be allowed to occupy four military bases in addition to the five it already operates—also came just a month after what was touted in the Philippines as a triumphant visit by Marcos to Beijing, where he reportedly secured $22.8 billion in investment pledges and exchanged warm words with President Xi Jinping.
But those who have followed the Marcos family’s relationship with the United States—or, indeed, the long saga of American intervention in the Philippines—were hardly surprised. The deal was less a bold break with the status quo than a reminder of a colonial relationship—first explicit, and then implicit—that has existed now for over a century.
Marcos’ First Year Was A Mixed Bag – Analysis by Kevin Nielsen M Agojo
January 18, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurasia Review) Despite mixed results in his first year in office, the promising developments in the presidency of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr should not be overlooked. His notable achievements include the signing of the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, which condoned US$1 billion of debts belonging to 610,054 beneficiaries. He also signed the Regional Specialty Centers Act, which institutionalises the creation of new specialty health centres.
His administration also granted amnesty to members of various rebel groups, agreed to resume peace talks with insurgents and ordered the recalibration of the infamous National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
The Philippine economy has also done well under Marcos. Inflation subsided from a 14-year high of 8.7 per cent in January 2023 to 3.9 per cent in December 2023. The Philippines also saw third quarter growth of 5.9 per cent, the strongest in Southeast Asia.
Marcos has walked back many of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s more controversial policies. Not only did he admit the drug war abuses during Duterte’s violent populist regime, but his administration also implemented a cleansing of the Philippine National Police. He has broken with Duterte’s China appeasement strategy by being assertive in defending the country’s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea.
But other policy areas need to be given due attention. In September 2023, Marcos ordered a price ceiling on rice amid an ‘alarming increase’ in its retail price attributed to ‘unscrupulous traders and importers’. The price cap was removed after a month, but not before causing confusion and dissent among government officials on how to manage rice shortages.
Marcos-Duterte Rift Gets Ugly With Drug Accusations by Jason Gutierrez
January 30, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurasia Review) In a snide counterattack, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Monday that the extended use of the opioid painkiller fentanyl by his immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, might have caused the former leader to accuse him of being a drug addict.
Marcos hit back at Duterte in a feud simmering between the country’s top two dynastic political families, which had allied together in the last election. Duterte’s daughter, Sara, is the vice president under Marcos.
The rift first took an ugly turn when Duterte, at a rally on Sunday, called Marcos a “son of a bitch.” In addition, but without presenting evidence, the famously foul-mouthed 78-year-old said that the current president and namesake son of a former Philippine dictator was hooked on illegal drugs.
When reporters questioned Marcos on Monday about Duterte’s drug allegations against him, the Philippine president referred to a 2016 admission by the former president, who, according to various news reports, had said that he had used fentanyl to relieve pain.
“I think it’s the fentanyl. Fentanyl is the strongest pain killer that you can buy. It is highly addictive and it has very serious side effects, and [Duterte] has been taking the drug for a very long time now,” Marcos, 66, told reporters before embarking on a two-day visit to Vietnam.
