MANILA, Philippines – While encouraged by the “positive” outcome of the eighth and possibly last round of negotiations with the Philippines for enhanced defense cooperation, the United States is urging Manila not to be pressured into signing an agreement by the April 28 visit of US President Barack Obama, diplomatic sources said yesterday. Sources also […]
Philippine undersecretary of defense Lorenzo Batino said April 11 that negotiators had reached “consensus on key points” of a new deal to allow a greater U.S. rotational military presence in the Philippines. But this raises a dilemma for Philippine lawmakers attempting to define and craft “an independent and nationalistic” foreign policy. At what point should […]
MANILA – As negotiators from both the United States and the Philippines wrap up an Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation (AEDC), party-list lawmakers are preparing to question it before the Supreme Court on grounds of constitutionality. “This early, we are already studying the option of questioning the AEDC at the Supreme Court because it is […]