SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday said it would be better if the United States realigned its $70 million budget for the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement to the country’s agriculture sector.
Pimentel made the pitch after US Ambassador MaryKay Carlson on Wednesday said the US is planning to allocate the amount in the next two years for the implementation of EDCA, a military agreement that will allow the US to build facilities and preposition its assets in strategic military bases in the country.
“The US and PH should focus on other matters and not primarily military. How about an agricultural agreement which will assist PH in producing more food from our land? Not in purely military matters which would seem that we are preparing for war,” Pimentel said.
EDCA was signed in 2014 to address China’s aggression in the South China Sea and respond to natural disasters. Its implementation was stalled during the Duterte administration due to the former president’s disdain for the US.
“These improvements are designed to enhance cooperative defense capacities and support humanitarian assistance disaster response activities, in ways that best meet the AFP and the alliance,” Carlson said.
She said the EDCA is another way to “operationalize” the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951, which binds the US and the Philippines to defend each other in case of armed attack.
