By PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA — Ilongga senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago stands firm in opposing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States.
Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, said she will hold an investigation on the various issues of constitutional law and international law vis-à-vis the agreement.
In a keynote address at the Baliwag Polytechnic College graduation rites in Bulacan yesterday, she called the agreement “abnormal.”
“Under international law, the personal participation of the head of state is necessary for so-called ‘treaties of particular importance,’” Santiago, a constitutional law expert, stressed.
The EDCA was signed by Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and US Ambassador Philip Goldberg hours before US President Barack Obama arrived for a state visit in the Philippines on April 28.
Santiago said the signatories should have established their authority in signing the agreement “by the production of a formal document known as ‘Full Powers.’”
The international judge said she is confident the Supreme Court will declare the defense pact “unconstitutional.”
She earlier said the agreement requires Senate concurrence.
Former senator Joker Arroyo claimed that the government only “rushed” the signing of the EDCA as a “gift” to Obama.
Arroyo, a former Senate minority leader, also said the agreement was “exclusively Malacañang-directed.”/PN
