VFA is a smokescreen. The real deal is EDCA. IMHO.
Duterte's administration have been using confiscated boats and impostoring it to stage "trespassing/incursions" and "poaching".
The case with the Military General backfired on Duterte. The public questioning why bypassed both Dept of Health and Foreign Affairs... imparting negative impression which leads to negative results in surveys.
Hi CMFDan,
EDCA is anchor on VFA,
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement
| Long name: | |
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| Signed | April 28, 2014 |
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| Location | , |
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| Parties |
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| Language | |
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The
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is an agreement between the
and the
intended to bolster the
. The agreement allows the United States to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays and allows the U.S. to build and operate facilities on Philippine bases, for both American and Philippine forces.
The US is not allowed to establish any permanent
.
It also gives Philippine personnel access to American ships and planes.
The EDCA is a
supplemental agreement to the previous
. The agreement was signed by Philippine Defense Secretary
and
in Manila on April 28, 2014.
On January 12, 2016, the
upheld the agreement's constitutionality in a 10–4 vote.
On July 26, 2016, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled with finality that the agreement is constitutional.
Evan Medeiros, the
’s senior director for Asian affairs was quoted in the
as saying, "This is the most significant defense agreement that we have concluded with the Philippines in decades."
The
(VFA) was signed by the governments of the Philippines and the United States in 1998, and came into effect in 1999. This was the first military agreement since the closing of U.S. bases in 1992. The VFA outlined a set of guidelines for the conduct and protection of American troops visiting the Philippines. The Agreement also stipulated the terms and conditions for American military to pass through or land in Philippine territory. The VFA is a reciprocal agreement in that not only does it outline the guidelines for U.S. troops visiting the Philippines but also for Philippine troops visiting the United States.
The signing of the VFA led to the establishment of annual bilateral
between the U.S. and the Philippine known as
, as well as a variety of other cooperative measures.
The
training exercises ("shoulder-to-shoulder") are annual military exercises between the U.S. and the Philippines. They are structured to maintain and develop the security relationship between the two countries' armed forces through crisis-action planning, enhanced training to conduct
operations, and promoting interoperability of the forces.
