Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Senators Joker Arroyo and Rodolfo Biazon wanted details of the new security arrangement to see if it requires Senate approval.
The 1987 Constitution forbids foreign troops from engaging in local combat.
The new agreement will allow US troops to take an active role in Manila’s efforts against cross-border threats such as terrorism, piracy and transnational crimes.
Biazon, a former Armed Forces chief who heads the Senate’s defense committee, wants to scrutinize the new security arrangement to see if it needs Senate passage.
The security arrangement, announced Tuesday, involves setting up a new joint consultative panel called the Security Engagement Board to discuss possible joint exercises and cooperation to deal with threats not covered by the Philippines’ defense treaty with the United States.
Cruz earlier said the security board had been set up under an executive agreement approved by President Arroyo and did not require approval by the Senate, which ratifies treaties.
Cruz yesterday briefed the Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement, co-chaired by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, on the details of the new security arrangement.
The panel has oversight on the conduct of joint military exercises between Philippine and US forces.
Cruz said the new security agreement would deal with "non-traditional security concerns" — such as terrorism, crime, maritime safety and security, natural and man-made disasters and epidemics — that are not covered by Manila’s 1951 defense treaty with Washington.
He also allayed speculation that the new pact will lead to deployment of US forces in the Philippines.
"(The) Security Engagement Board mirrored the mutual defense board, it is really a mechanism for consultation. This is not a basing agreement, it is just a mechanism for the Philippines and the US to consult what areas of non-traditional concerns should be explored for cooperation," Cruz said.
Arroyo earlier raised concerns on the need for transparency in the security agreement.
"If the executive does not want the Senate to review it, all they have to do is make it an executive agreement which is going around the requirements of a treaty," said Arroyo, who voted against the stay of US military bases in the Philippines in the early 1990s.
Arroyo added he wants to determine the security agreement’s impact on the Philippines’ internal security.
Drilon wants to see a copy of the agreement to determine if it "requires a ratification of the Senate (and) if it entails the deployment of troops in the country."
Pimentel also raised concerns that the agreement is a legal cover for another purpose in which US troop involvement would be prohibited by law.
"The Senate is the body mandated by the Constitution to be sure that our country’s sovereignty is not just taken for granted, especially those who want to put in troops in our country," he said.
Pimentel said "if the intention is to allow the deployment of foreign troops in the country, that is something that is prohibited in the Constitution unless passed through the Senate, for example, for approval. (If) that is another treaty involving the movements of troops in the country, it is a very sensitive issue."
In 1951, Manila and Washington signed the Mutual Defense Treaty to help defend each other in case of external attacks. They also forged a Visiting Forces Agreement in 1999 that allows US forces to join large-scale military exercises in the Philippines.
Cruz said he and other officials recommended establishment of the SEB to discuss security concerns such as terrorism that do not currently fall under the Mutual Defense Treaty.
Mrs. Arroyo is one of Asia’s most vocal backers of Washington’s global war on terror and has allowed US forces to train and arm Philippine troops battling al-Qaeda-linked militants in the southern region of Mindanao, the scene of decades-old Muslim separatist uprisings.
US officials have long been concerned over the presence of an al-Qaeda-linked militant group, the Abu Sayyaf, in the southern Philippines. The small, violent group has been blamed for high-profile kidnappings and beheadings, including of Americans.
Philippine and US officials said the SEB, co-chaired by the Philippine military chief of staff and the US Pacific commander, will develop measures to enhance cooperation between the two allies.
US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop said the creation of the board was a Philippine initiative and "it will provide a clearer framework for consultations and planning to address nontraditional security concerns."
Cruz said the board "affords us the opportunity to develop focused and comprehensive responses" to security threats.
"Transnational nontraditional security threats highlight the need for cooperation among nations in the face of common security challenges," he said.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said the new arrangement "demonstrates the Philippines’ commitment to enhance its own capability and contribute to the international effort to address these current and emerging security threats in an evolving security environment."
"The establishment of the SEB further strengthens our partnership," the statement quoted US Ambassador Kristie Kenney as saying, noting that the Philippines was a longtime friend and NATO ally.
"The SEB is not a new treaty and would merely implement existing bilateral treaties between the Philippines and the United States," Kenney said.
Left-wing lawmakers said they plan to call for an investigation to determine the legality of the new security arrangement.