Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to run for vice president, sidestepping presidential term limits in an unorthodox maneuver with possible ramifications for the United States in the Indo-Pacific.
“Enrile said the other day that the MDT, which covers the Pacific theater, does not apply to the South China Sea,” Carpio said in a message sent to GMA News Online. It was the same statement he sent to an Ateneo Viber group.“This contradicts his statement in 1992, published in Manila Bulletin, explaining that the 1979 Memo of Sec. Cyrus Vance means the MDT applies to the South China Sea,” he added.
May 1, 2021 Share
Comments by Philippine officials indicate that, with a growing Chinese maritime threat, Manila now hopes the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States – which the Philippines once moved to terminate – survives, experts told VOA Thursday.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. last year announced the country had suspended the announced termination of the agreement. The 1999 pact provides for arms sales, intelligence exchanges and discussions on military cooperation. It allows U.S. troops access to Philippine soil for military exercises aimed at regional security and local humanitarian work. Those measures shore up a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.
Locsin said in a tweet earlier this month that negotiations over the pact were nearly finished, Philippine media reported last week. The talks began in February and coincided with China’s mooring of 220 fishing boats at a reef that Beijing and Manila dispute. Media reports quote Locsin
As Chinese Maritime Threat Looms, Philippines, US Discuss Saving Deal Manila Once Scrapped
01 May 2021
VOA News
FILE - The amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu is seen docked following joint exercises at the Alava pier, off Subic Bay Freeport zone, northwestern Philippines, Oct. 13, 2014, as part of the Visiting Forces Agreement.
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Comments by Philippine officials indicate that, with a growing Chinese maritime threat, Manila now hopes the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States - which the Philippines once moved to terminate - survives, experts told VOA Thursday.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. last year announced the country had suspended the announced termination of the agreement. The 1999 pact provides for arms sales, intelligence exchanges and discussions on military cooperation. It allows U.S. troops access to Philippine soil for military exercises aimed at regional security and local humanitarian work. Those measures shore
In the Philippines, Attacks on Asian-Americans Threaten ‘Family’
The country’s foreign secretary responded forcefully to the recent assault on a Filipino immigrant in New York City. Some have called it hypocritical.
Protesters gathered outside a New York building where a Filipino woman was attacked on Monday. The police are investigating the case as a hate crime.Credit.Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
April 1, 2021Updated 8:41 a.m. ET
“The answer to racism has to be police/military; not understanding,” the foreign secretary, Teodoro Locsin, said in another Twitter post on the attack. “Racists understand only force.”
Mr. Locsin’s aggressive response, which echoed the bombastic populism of his boss, President Rodrigo Duterte,