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US state dep’t exec in Manila for talks

By

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario

Andrew Shapiro, the United States assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs, is in the country to meet with senior civilian and military officials on enhancing broad defense and security cooperation.

“Shapiro will consult with senior civilian and military officials on further enhancing broad defense and security cooperation for the mutual benefit of the United States and the Philippines, building on consultations from the recent US-Philippines Bilateral Security Dialogue in Washington,” the US Embassy said in a statement Thursday.

Shapiro, who arrived Thursday, will be in the country until Saturday.

Malacañang on Thursday said there will be no meeting between President Benigno Aquino III and Shapiro.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Shapiro will be meeting with Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario “to consult on how to further enhance defense and security cooperation, building on the discussions during the Philippine-US Bilateral Strategic Dialogue in Washington, DC last January 26 to 27.”

Del Rosario earlier said that high-level talks between the Philippines and the United States, scheduled for next month, on expanding Washington’s military presence in the country will push through as planned.

The Philippines and the US issued a joint statement last January 27 at the end of their second bilateral strategic dialogue in the US capital, saying they looked forward to “continuing our high-level consultation at a joint ministerial meeting” next March.

At last month’s dialogue, the two allies reaffirmed their “commitment to fulfill the vision of the 2011 Manila Declaration through an invigorated and expanded alliance capable of addressing 21st century challenges.”

They referred to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty as the “basis for the alliance and the treaty’s continued relevance to the peace, security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific.”

They “committed to further enhance cooperation… in security, defense, commerce, law enforcement, human rights, and disaster relief,” as they also “agreed to deepen and broaden our maritime security cooperation.”

Del Rosario earlier said the Philippines would accept an increased US military presence in the country, but emphasized that this would be in accordance with Philippine law, which has banned the basing of foreign troops. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño

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Tags: Andrew Shapiro , Defense , Foreign affairs , Global Nation , Military , Security Cooperation , US

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  • http://www.birdandfish.com Bird and Fishes

    there are no benefits from these two treaties. –
    Both Visiting Forces Agreement and Mutual Defense Treaty are Anti-Filipino, and Pro-American only.
    How could one country benefit from wasting bullets on useless balikatan exercises, and we even spend money on them? hmmm…
    Stupid Aquino.. a Puppet of these US capitalists!

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C7NDKVKKYO4WPQSIPYATRSFCGI Henry

      Yup…there’s no benefit in those treaty……………if you are a Communist Pig

    • Anonymous

      People who keep their silence on China’s bullying in the Sprayleys are Anti-Filipino and Pro Chinese only.  How could the Philippines benefit from people like you. 

  • Anonymous

    Bird and fishes: birdbrain and fishy

  • Anonymous

    Yes to stronger US-Philippines cooperation.

  • http://joboni96.myopenid.com/ joboni96

    1. 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty as the “basis for the alliance and the treaty’s continued relevance to the peace, security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific.”

    > wala na yang treaty na iyan
    dahil hindi comporme sa
    ating 1987 konstitusyon

    2. Del Rosario said the Philippines would accept an increased US military presence in the country, but emphasized that this would be in accordance with Philippine law, which has banned the basing of foreign troops.

    > ano kayang legal tumbling at paikotikot
    ang gagawin ni del rosario
    para magawa ito

    top u.s. collaborator talaga
    itong sekretaryo ng
    department of foreign recolonization affairs

    • Anonymous

      The 1987 constitution abrogated only the presence of the American bases in the Philippines so the Mutual Defense Pact can still be implemented.  There is no doubt that you are a top Chinese collaborator.  If China is not claiming the whole of the sea that is located south of China the Phil. doesn’t have to invoke the 1951 Mutual Defense treaty.

      • http://joboni96.myopenid.com/ joboni96

        kontrahin tsina
        pero with asean and neighbors
        not with warmonger imperialist u.s.

        if you read the 1951 treaty
        that was imposed on weak us
        by the imperialist u.s.
        hindi papasa sa 1987 constitution natin

  • Anonymous

    How can the PH govt accept “increased US military presence” without giving them bases? Kalokohan lang ‘to.  It was already clear in the 2009 Senate investigation that the Americans are exploiting the “vague” wording of our VFA treaty and engaging in combat operations and lying to the PH public.  We should reject the treaty and turn to our Asian partners for military cooperation and assistance.  

    Aligning ourselves with the US will cause us further grief.  People are so brainwashed from propaganda that we were “liberated” from the Japanese in WW2 when in fact, it was the US that provoked the Japanese to attack its military bases in the PH to prevent the economic blockade of Japan by the US Navy.

    Similarly, during the Iraq War, terrorists from the Iraqi insurgency, as well as Al Qaeda, targetted Filipino’s in Iraq for kidnapping and a few were beheaded because we were allied with the US.  

    How many Filipino’s here want to give their life for Uncle Sam?  More than 100,000 Filipino soldiers fought and died for Uncle Sam against the Japanese in WW2 and the US didn’t even give them veterans benefits after 1946.  They died in vain.  Let that be a lesson to us all.

    We do not want China to target us like a US military base like what the Japanese did in WW2.  The devastation would be massive.  We should resist China’s imperialist actions in our territory as a sovereign nation and neutral country because we also need China as a major trading partner.  China holds more than 30% of US debt and has had diplomatic relations with the US since the 1970′s – why are we still treating China as if this was the Cold War?  As a free people and sovereign state, we need to re-educate our military that the Cold War is over!  The US is not somebody we can rely on or trust.  We need to be smarter and not keep thinking of ourselves as beggars!

  • Anonymous

    With or without US Military presence in the our country chinese will still attack us because they want the entire spratly island because of its vast oil and mineral reserve.
    Presently we do not have weapons that could match the Chinese weapons. As a citizen If war or invasion will happen I will stand and fight and do guerrilla warfare and it would be very bad because I will not let any invader escape me and my family my relatives my friend will never embraced communism in any way.
    So right now, i am asking those who are opposing US military assistance to us what are you going to do to fight the chinese in case they invade us? are you going to use YOUR ITAK?

    People who are against us military presence in our country are being paid by the chinese to conduct PR Damage campaign against the US and to instill to the mind of unsuspecting Filipinos that american military presence is bad to us.

    In our current society most people are now educated and we understand what is going on, you cannot fool us anymore.
    Us military presence will deter chinese arrogance and bullying to their small neighbors. chinese will think thousand times before they start confrontation to us if the US is here.
    Right now what we need to do is accept US help and assistance.
    Make ourselves very rich or super rich and later on we can establish a research and development to make advance weapons and technology with our current intelligent Filipino inventors later on we can even surpass the weapons and technology of the west. Then that is the time that we no longer need military assistance from the US.

  • Anonymous

    yes to closer us-phil friendship and cooperation.

    in the first place, it was a foreign policy mistake for the country to ignore the us and approach china and russia. yuo can see kung pano sinuklian ng china ang filipino friendship and hospitality. they shoot our fishermen and grab our islands and fish and poach in our own waters. we can do nothing but complain.

    26 years since edsa umunlad ba pinas, lalo lang nag-regress. we lost a lot of us investments, economic aid, military aid, cooperations in various fields and even our regional influence in southest asia. our neighboring countries have become more prosperous and richer while ours continue to be a basket case.

    ang mga militante lang naman ang mahilig mag-rally diyan pero pag me abuses ang abu sayaff at npa killings tahimik sila. pag nag-iintrude china, tahimik sila. pag me mga calamities at disasters sino ba unang tumutulong, samantlang mga militanteng ito walang ginawa kundi mag-protest.



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