US military bases are back, but don’t call them that

What his mother in 1991 couldn’t do despite her aura then as the saint of democracy—which was to continue having US military bases in the country—President Benigno Aquino 3rd appears to have achieved.

The Supreme Court ruled the other day that the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA)—which the Philippines under Aquino signed with the United States to let the superpower use camps and other places in the country to accommodate its troops, vessels, aircraft and war materiel—is not unconstitutional as it merely implements the Visiting Forces Agreement ratified by the Senate as a treaty in 1999.