From start, Aquino bypassed the Senate on EDCA

Let’s not beat around the bush on the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that the Aquino administration surreptitiously negotiated and sealed with the Obama administration on April 28.

From the very beginning, President Aquino, on the advice of his foreign affairs and defense secretaries and his legal team, never planned to consult the Senate on his decision to discuss with the US government the feasibility of a defense cooperation agreement to strengthen security relations between our two countries, and expand on the understandings regarding the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.