ILIGAN CITY - A woman legislator challenged the Mindanao State University–Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) students to take a stand against the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) as it creates a degrading culture for women.
Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) representative, Emmi De Jesus, said the students should put forward their informed decisions regarding EDCA and organize themselves against the threat of EDCA to our society.
“I challenge you all to take a stand and position yourselves on this issue,” said de Jesus during a forum in MSU-IIT hosted by the school, Students Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy–IIT (STAND-IIT), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and Gabriela.
Remembering Rosario
De Jesus said in areas that will be designated as EDCA sites, the social status of women and their family would surely be deteriorated.
“A culture wherein women and children will be viewed as ‘tagabigay ng aliw’ will be created in areas selected for EDCA,” de Jesus said.
De Jesus cited the case of the street child Rosario Baluyot from Olongapo, also known as, the “Sin City.” Olongapo is also the location of one of the largest US Naval Bases in the Asia Pacific before the people protested against it that led to its abolition in the early 1990s.
De Jesus said an Austrian foreigner thought the Philippines is a sex tourist destination, and had sex with the twelve year-old Rosario who she said was prostituted due to poverty and government neglect.
De Jesus said the foreigner inserted a vibrator inside Rosario. She died of infection after a part of a vibrator was stuck inside her.
De Jesus furthered that previously the military bases increased the incident of pregnant women bearing child with physical abnormality due to the toxic waste of ships and other facilities of the United States Army.
“The social cost of EDCA is just too much especially to women and their children,” de Jesus said.
De Jesus said the US is planning to position its warships in Asia Pacific, and that it eyes the Philippines as its strategic location.
She added the military interest of US is part of the economic aggression in the Asia Pacific region.
Unconstitutional
Lawyer Harry Roque Jr., director of Institute of International Legal Studies (IILS) in the University of the Philippines Law Center, said EDCA is clearly a violation of our national sovereignty.
Roque added that EDCA has no Senate concurrence and it violates Article VIII of the Philippine Constitution.
However, Roque argued that EDCA is a new policy because it makes the Philippines a partner of the United States in their new policy to “pivot to Asia.”
Roque also mentioned the MDT was created as a strategy against the threat of communist China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). “But that was a long time ago and the threat isn’t there anymore. Therefore it should be abolished.”
With regard to VFA, Roque said it also has no Senate concurrence in the U.S.
In his discussion, Roque said that even if the violations of the US soldiers occur in the Philippine soils, the Philippine government and the Constitution have no fangs over the foreign soldiers.
Roque added there were more than seventy Filipino deaths involving US soldiers in the past but not even a single foreign soldier was imprisoned.
Okay
Political Science student, Casan-Ali Limbona, told Sun*Star Cagayan de Oro that he is okay with the military exercise but to the military exercises alone.
He added that it would be naïve to believe that it would be just military exercises without any hidden agenda.
“They should do it strictly for training lang. No hidden agenda dapat,” Limbona said.
Meanwhile, Vennel Chenfoo, coordinator of League of Filipino Students–Northern Mindanao Region (LFS-NMR), said the US soldiers should not be allowed in the Philippine soil.
“What happened before is enough to warn us of the negative impacts of US military presence in our country. We should never forget what happened to our women in Olongapo and Subic when military bases were still around,” Chenfoo said.
He added that policies like EDCA are an insult to the hard-earned struggle of the Filipino people against the presence of US troops in our country.
“How dare they forgot the struggle we had with the US bases in 1990s?” He asked rhetorically, adding we should not forget our history.