Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said on Saturday the greater presence of American troops in the country should be welcomed as it was allowed under the longstanding mutual defense treaty between the Philippines and the United States.
Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario said Saturday a greater presence of American troops in the country should be welcomed as such was allowed under the long-standing mutual defense treaty between the Philippines and the United States.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that Malacanang’s plans to request the US to deploy spy planes over the West Philippine Sea should be seen as part of its responsibility to help the Philippines.
As China deployed more vessels to Scarborough Shoal, prominent Filipino-American civic leader Loida Nicolas-Lewis rallied on Wednesday all Filipinos around the world to mount a global rally against Chinese incursions into the shoal on May 11.
Lawmakers on Tuesday begrudged the United States for declaring that it would not take sides in the territorial dispute between the Philippines and China.
The United States says it will help build the Philippines’ sea patrol capability but will not take sides in that nation’s standoff with China at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
The Department of National Defense on Tuesday echoed the reaffirmation of the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty based on the “2plus2” meeting in Washington DC but said it was hoping that MDT would not have to be invoked.
Noting their alliance remains an “anchor for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,” the Philippines and the United States have reaffirmed their obligations under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, as well as the 2011 Manila Declaration, so that their partnership would remain responsive in meeting changing global and regional issues.
After 10 days of military drills, civic action, humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HA/DR) work involving US and Philippine troops that drew warnings from China of possible armed confrontation, the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) 2012 close Friday at Tejeros Hall in Camp Aguinaldo.
The Aquino administration would seek a third-party mediator to the country’s ongoing conflict with China over the ownership of Panatag Shoal, the Palace said on Thursday as it rejected Beijing’s call for Manila not to take their conflict to other nations.
The Philippines plans to “maximize the benefits” that can be derived from its Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States during the “2 + 2″ meeting between Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, and their US counterparts—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta—scheduled for April 30 in Washington.
The annual Balikatan military exercises between the Philippines and the United States are about “working together in the spirit of the Mutual Defense Treaty” and in keeping with the two allies’ “heightened cooperation on the breadth of bilateral, regional and global issues,” US Ambassador to Manila Harry Thomas Jr. said Wednesday.
