High-ranking US and Philippine military officials will meet Tuesday on bilateral defense issues, in the shadow of a case that has given nationalist groups cause to revive calls to disallow American troops from the country: the death of a transgender, in a suspected homicide involving a US soldier.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines' public affairs chief, Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, said the Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) meeting will focus on mutual security concerns to demonstrate increased bilateral commitment to the 63-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the United States, signed in 1951.
Among the key issues to be discussed are Mutual Defense, Maritime Security, Combating Terrorism, Philippine Defense Reform (PDR), Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR), Civil-military Operations (CMO), Peacekeeping (PKO), Transnational Crimes, and Cyber Security.
AFP Chief of Staff General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. chairs the Philippine delegation. His counterpart and co-chairman is Admiral Samuel Locklear III, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM).Also attending are the AFP Major Services Commanders; the Chief, Philippine National Police; the Commandant, Philippine Coast Guard; the Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACOM).The VFA and the recently forged Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) had been the beef of nationalist groups, who said these two accords circumvent the people's will as manifested in the historic Senate vote of 1991 that ended the RP-US Bases Treaty.
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