RP needs pact with U.S. to ward off intrusion

RP needs pact with U.S. to ward off intrusion

MANILA (AP): President Joseph Estrada urged senators on Sunday
to ratify an accord allowing U.S. military exercises in the
country, saying it would help the Philippines ward off Chinese
intrusions in the disputed Spratly islands.

The Philippine Senate began hearings last week on the
ratification of the so-called Visiting Forces Agreement, which
would allow the resumption of large-scale joint military
exercises between the two allies.

A decision could be reached in March, the senators said.
"It's good for us to have an ally, a superpower partner so our
security would be safeguarded," Estrada said in a radio
interview.

He cited recent Chinese intrusions in Mischief Reef in the
Spratly chain of islands in the South China Sea and said a strong
military alliance between the Philippines and the United States
would "balance power in all of Asia."

If the accord is ratified, Estrada said the U.S. government
might agree to provide military assistance later.

The agreement, signed last year by U.S. and Philippine
officials, provides legal protections to U.S. troops in the
Philippines. Critics say it would severely limit the Manila
government's right to prosecute American soldiers who commit
crimes, promote prostitution and infringe on Philippine
sovereignty.

Military ties with the United States, which ruled the
Philippines as a colony for nearly half a century, have remained
a sensitive topic since the Philippine Senate forced the closure
of the last U.S. base in 1992.

The United States halted major exercises in the Philippines
and visits by U.S. military ships in December 1996, when the
Manila government ended a legal loophole that had shielded U.S.
military personnel from prosecution by the Philippines for crimes
committed here.

Senator Blas Ople, chairman of the Senate foreign affairs
committee, has said the Senate might reject the agreement if the
United States does not guarantee it will come to the aid of the
Philippines in any military confrontation with Beijing over the
Spratlys.

The United States has not taken sides in the competing
territorial claims to the Spratlys, and the 1951 U.S.-Philippine
Mutual Defense Treaty does not clearly state whether Washington
would defend the Philippines in any confrontation over the
territory.

China began building structures, which it claims are shelters
for fishermen, on Mischief Reef in 1995, drawing protests from
the Philippines, which also claims the reef. The dispute heated
up last October when Chinese workers began enlarging the
structures.

After Estrada took office in June, the Philippines began
seeking international support to halt what it sees as Chinese
expansion in the Spratlys.

Outside the Senate, about 200 protesters shouted "No to U.S.
bases" as government officials urged the senators to approve the
pact.

"In a perfect world, our country would not need a Visiting
Forces Agreement," said Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado.
"Unfortunately, ours is not a perfect world."