{"id":28611,"date":"2014-10-11T12:01:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T04:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=28611"},"modified":"2014-10-11T17:04:38","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T09:04:38","slug":"govt-lawyers-ask-sc-to-junk-petitions-vs-edca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/11\/govt-lawyers-ask-sc-to-junk-petitions-vs-edca\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t lawyers ask SC to junk petitions vs Edca"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Supreme Court of the Philippines building in Manila, Philippines. Photo by Mike Gonzalez \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 The Supreme Court on Friday was asked to dismiss the petitions nullifying the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) which gives the United States more access to the military bases in the country.<\/p>\n

The Office of the Solicitor General said in a 32-oage consolidated comment that President Aquino aims to \u201cpromote national security interests\u201d in the 10-year agreement with the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, the President, as head of State and chief representative of government, has the prime duty to serve and protect the people,\u201d read the pleading of the nine-member OSG panel.<\/p>\n

The Edca only aims to enhance the implementation of the on-going agreement and treaties of the country with the US, including the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), according to acting Solicitor General Florin Hilbay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Edca does is to enhance the existing contractual security apparatus between the Philippines and the US, set up through the MDT and the VFA. It is the duty of the Honorable Court to allow this security apparatus enough breathing space to respond to perceived, anticipated, and actual exigencies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the agreement is vital in addressing both the external and the internal concerns of the country.<\/p>\n

He said that Edca is important on providing security measures needed \u201cto achieve a minimum credible defense to the manifold security concerns in the West Philippine Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

He, thus, said that the court \u201cshould not render the President helpless or impair his ability to set up a national security apparatus in the face of clear, present, and verified reports of activities that endanger the integrity of the Philippine State.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further reminded the court of the separation of powers adding that the court has \u201cinvariably maintained a deferential attitude to executive decisions on matters of national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any case, the exercise of the authority to uphold national security has barely any limitations, for the President must be given the widest latitude in balancing the nation\u2019s limited options and calibrating his responses to ensure their maximum intended effect,\u201d the OSG said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudicial deference to decisions relating to national security is also required by the principle of separation of powers,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 The Supreme Court on Friday was asked to dismiss the petitions nullifying the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[2825,2942],"class_list":["post-28611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","tag-edca","tag-sc","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}