“My God, we are facing a problem that’s beyond the capability of the country to handle militarily, even politically,” Senator Juan Ponce Enrile said after the Senate adopted Senator Miriam Santiago’s Senate Resolution No. 1414 declaring Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) invalid without concurrence from Senate. Enrile, Senators Franklin Drilon and Bam Aquino abstained, while Senator Trillanes voted against the resolution.
Fifteen senators voted in favor of the said resolution created by Santiago.
“Why should we keep quibbling about our relationship with other countries? As far as security’s concerned, it’s the primary function of government and the entire people of a nation to maintain their security, Constitution or no Constitution,” said Senator Enrile, a former defense minister.
Asked by reporters if EDCA is an executive agreement or treaty, he said “I don’t know. We do not quibble about technicalities when it concerns the survival of the country.”
What do we have? Our laway? Let the talkative ones hold the guns to fight the people who will be coming here to invade us if we cannot settle these problems in a peaceful manner. We are not living in this world by ourselves. This planet is full of problems. – Senator Enrile
He added that he is not saying that the Constitution should be violated but we must be very careful in saying anything that will not impart to others who are hearing us that we are shackled by all kinds of limitations.
“We must remember that we are dealing with 100 million lives of Filipinos here,” he added. “An alliance with anybody with capability, naval capability like the United States we should welcome as a boon to our security.”
EDCA is currently at the Supreme Court after several entities questioned its constitutionality.