Are Phl, US colluding to flout Constitution?

STUMBLING BLOCK: Are officials of the Philippines and the United States colluding to go around the spirit of the Constitution in their secret negotiation for a new agreement allowing the temporary basing of American forces in the country?

Under Section 25 of Article XVIII (Transitory Provisions) of the Constitution, “foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate xxx.”

That ban is crystal clear to most people.

On Feb. 10, 1998, six years after the termination of the Phl-US bases agreement, the two countries, recognizing a common security threat, signed a stop-gap Visiting Forces Agreement that cleared the way for the short rotational stay of American servicemen.

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REVOLVING DOOR: The 2,650-word VFA came in with the legal myth that US servicemen operating on Philippine soil on a revolving-door arrangement are not here as the “foreign military bases, troops, or facilities” banned by the Constitution.

The trick reminds us of the sleight-of-hand of then President Ferdinand Marcos, an astute lawyer, who relabeled US installations as Philippine bases, with the Philippine flag flying over them to hide their being American bases nominally downgraded to “facilities.”

This time around, President Noynoy Aquino is poised to play a similar trick on the Filipino people and the members of the Senate whose concurrence to a basing treaty is required by the Constitution.

In the current negotiations, both sides are talking of American forces “temporarily” staying for up to 20 years, almost as long as the 25-year lease to which Marcos was able to whittle down the original 99-year bases term.

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U.S. LEAD: Twenty or even 15 years is certainly far from temporary. Also, giving the proposed installations a seemingly harmless label is being dishonest and not in keeping with the restrictive spirit of the Constitution.

A 20-year stay — almost a generation — is a bogus temporary visit of the foreign forces banned by the Charter unless allowed under a contract that is treated by both sides as a treaty.

Judging alone from their body language as they report on the status of the talks, the negotiators of President Aquino must have been hypnotized by the Americans flashing Pepsodent smiles across the table.

One gets the feeling that the two panels have been using the American draft, with the Filipinos taking the line of least resistance of simply suggesting a rewording here and there and then grunting approval.

Their American counterparts, on the other hand, look as smug as car salesmen confident of clinching the deal.

But we are still hoping for a fair deal. We are just wondering what the quid pro quo is -- for after all the US needs our base facilities as much as we need its protective presence.

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IMMINENT RAPE: The more sanguine operators in Malacañang will probably go straight to the point and ask “How much?”

Like the poor masses being manipulated by the cacique in high places, poverty-stricken Philippines may have no choice but to dance to the music floating across the Pacific from Washington.

If he wants, President Aquino can do a Marcos, who maximized the dollar rental and hastened delivery of defense materiel in exchange for the military bases. He can also demand a review of the VFA section on criminal jurisdiction.

We recall the advice of a now-deceased foreign secretary, an Atenean, who said that if rape is inevitable, the victim might as well lean back and enjoy it.

The Americans will get what they want anyway, resorting to all the tricks in the manual, like maybe mentioning such delicate matters as secret New York and Grand Cayman accounts, or sending in a new ambassador known for his expertise on regime change.

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WHO’S FOE, FRIEND?: With the Chinese already dropping concrete building blocks to cement their illegal possession of Panatag (Scarborough) shoal some 120 miles off Zambales, President Aquino may just panic into approving whatever basing arrangements the Americans propose.

The Philippines is not only lacking in military strength, it is also losing time. While we await overt US assistance, the Chinese dragon loses no time gobbling up bits and pieces of territory within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.

China’s aggression tends to confirm the propaganda being fed Filipinos that their neighbor and trading partner over the centuries is the enemy – juxtaposed on the cultivated image of the US as friend and protector.

There lies the problem. Noynoy Aquino might rush into the arms of Uncle Sam to escape the interloper — unaware that Washington has no intention of confronting Beijing for Manila.

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WE’RE FRIENDS, BUT…: Actually, the US itself is also under time pressure to establish alternate forward bases closer to the Chinese mainland.

A big number of US marines in Okinawa are being expelled on account of growing Japanese objections to American military presence. And then, Guam and Australia are unable to absorb them all, aside from their far striking distance from the mainland.

The Philippines happens to be a better location for US bases under the belly of China. Maybe President Aquino can exploit this geographical point while addressing the constitutional restriction and the political problem of selling the idea of a return of foreign military bases.

While we can assume that a great majority of Filipinos regard the US as a friend, a great number have grown wary of its selfish designs.

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