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."