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Deeper defense ties with US: What it means for PH
by KURT DELA PEÑA Inquirer.net
MANILA — Far from how it was when Rodrigo Duterte was still in Malacañang, ties between the Philippines and the United States are now rekindling, with the two countries accelerating the full implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), which was signed in 2014.
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Looking back, Duterte, in 2016, threatened to scrap the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that provided simplified access procedures to the Philippines for U.S. military men on official business, and a series of procedures for how to resolve issues that may come up as a result of the presence of American soldiers in the Philippines.
But as Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed office on June 30, 2022 over a month after winning the presidency with 31,629,783 votes, the Philippines has strengthened its ties with the U.S., a clear reversal from Duterte’s often-hostile attitude towards the United States, which he once said the Philippines has separated from.
As Marcos said last Feb. 2, “again, I have always said that it seems to me that the future of the Philippines and, for that matter, the Asia-Pacific will always have to involve the U.S. simply because those ties are so strong
