APD | Mixed signals from two key officials of Philippine government on calls for Mutual Defense Treaty review

By APD writer Melo M. Acuna

MANILA, March. 5 (APD) – While Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. acknowledged some quarters calling for a review of the 68-year old Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States of America, he said such “requires further thought.”

Speaking during the joint press conference with U. S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo last Friday (March 1), Secretary Locsin was quoted saying “In vagueness lies uncertainty: a deterrent.”  He added specificity “invites evasion and actions outside the MDT framework.”

He added “too much vagueness lends itself to doubt the firmness of commitments.”

However, Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said he does not believe that ambiguity or vagueness of the Philippine US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) will serve as a deterrent.

In a statement released today by the Department of National Defense, Secretary Lorenzana said vagueness “will cause confusion and chaos during a crisis.”

“The fact that the security environment now is so vastly difference and much more complex than the bipolar security construct of the era when the MDT was written necessitates a review of the Treaty,” he said.

He added he would even argue that the MDT “should have been reviewed when the US bases were terminated in 1992 and we lost our security umbrella.” The defense secretary said a couple of years after the Americans left Subic Naval Base in Zambales and Clark Air Base in Pampanga, “the Chinese began their aggressive actions in Mischief Reef -  not an armed attack but it was aggression just the same.” He said the US did not stop it.

Secretary Lorenzana said the Philippines is not in conflict with anyone and will not be at war with anyone in the future.  However, he hastened to add “But the United States, with the increased and frequent passage of its naval vessels in the West Philippine Sea, is more likely to be involved in a shooting war.”

“In such a case and on the basis of the MDT, the Philippines will be automatically involved,” he said.

“It is not the lack of reassurance that worries me.  It is being involved in a war that we do not seek and we do not want,” he concluded.

In a related development, former Ambassador Alberto A. Encomienda said the both the Departments of Foreign Affairs and National Defense play important roles in the review of the Mutual Defense Treaty.

Speaking over Tapatan sa Aristocrat media forum Monday, the former Foreign Affairs official said there is even a need to abrogate the Mutual Defense Treaty because it may endanger the Philippines more should there be miscalculations among Chinese and American military personnel in the South China Sea.

Former Armed Forces of the Philippines Intelligence Chief General Victor Corpus said the American presence in the country through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) may expose the Philippines to danger as the Americans have never confirmed nor denied the existence of nuclear weapons in their ships that enter Philippine territorial waters.  

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)