Senate ready to hold ‘full-blown’ debate on Edca
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate is ready to conduct a “full-blown” debate on the controversial Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) between the Philippines and the United States, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said on Monday.
“We, here in the Senate, me as chair of the foreign affairs committee, stand fully ready. We are ready. Ready when they are,” Santiago said during a press conference at the Senate.
“Long before, when this was still being negotiated and up for signature, in my committee we already drew up a list of resource persons. We expect a full blown debate here,” she said.
Santiago issued the statements after some justices hinted during last week’s oral argument on the petition that the Senate, and not the Supreme Court, may be the right forum to resolve the questions raised against it.
The Constitution was very clear, she said, that “no treaty or international agreement shall be valid unless ratified or effective unless approved by two-thirds of all members of the Senate.”
“This means that if any document, whether you call it a treaty or some other international agreement like Edca, if that treaty has not been ratified by the Senate, it is not valid and it is not effective then what are you discussing? It is a question of priorities,” the senator said.
“The Supreme Court is very gently telling the petitioners that they did not proceed logically,” she further said.
In fact, Santiago said she was “very surprised” that the petitioners did not file a petition with the Senate for the ratification process to have begun “because I’ve just been raring to go.”
“If they are not going to get the Senate ratification that is specifically mentioned in the Constitution, what is their constitutional basis since it appears that the language employed is all embracing?” she further asked.
The senator stressed that a treaty will only be considered an aofficial document once it is ratified by the Senate.
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