A boost for PDU30’s ‘independent’ postureIN diplomacy, as in chess or any other sports for that matter, the professional player graciously yields when he sees he has lost the game. After the 1947 bases agreement expired and the bases pulled out, the MDT was the only defense treaty that remained. This was the reason the VFA was concluded between Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon, Jr. and US Ambassador Thomas Hubbard—as an implementing agreement of the MDT. Right upon his arrival, the Supreme Court en banc, by a vote of 9-4, affirmed with finality the constitutionality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the US. Now, Sereno is telling us—and the rest of our posterity—that the EDCA is but an implementing agreement of an implementing agreement?

Source: Manila Times July 28, 2016 13:41 UTC