Fanning fire vs US pact

Peace in the ties of the Philippines and the United States has been broken with the killing of a Filipino transgender in Olongapo City reportedly by a US Marine. The marine participated in the just concluded joint amphibious landing war exercises of American and Philippine forces called PHIBLEX .
Police and US Navy criminal investigators identified the fatality as Jeffrey Laude alias “Jennifer” and the suspect as Marine Pvt. Joseph Scott Pemberton assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine, Camp Lajeune, North Carolina who is being held in his warship which is docked at the Subic Freeport, a former American naval base. Jennifer was reportedly choked to death inside a hotel in Olongapo City with his face facing the toilet bowl.
The killing revived and strengthened the Filipino people’s opposition to the operation of US military forces in the Philippines and the controversial US-Philippines Mutual Defense Act and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the two countries. Many years ago, in 1991 the Philippine Senate rejected an amity and friendship agreement of the two countries due to the supposed continued use of some bases in the Philippines by US forces. By allowing US troops to once again be based in the country, the Philippines will become a witting target of enemy forces of the Americans, according to the oppositionists and nationalists.
Twenty years since that 1991 rejection, Philippine and US authorities are trying to go around the bush by crafting the EDCA or Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement whereby American forces are allowed visitorial rights for additional troops in the Philippines. EDCA was signed in April 2014 in the presence of US President Barack Obama during a historic state visit. Some sectors in the Philippines, however, questioned the EDCA in the Supreme Court, delaying its implementation amidst heightened militarism of China and its insistence on its claims on islands, shoals and reefs in the disputed West Philippine Sea and South China Sea.
One reason for the opposition to the VFA and EDCA is subjugating Philippine powers over erring American troopers committing crimes in the Philippines like rape and killing of Filipinos like “Nicole” recently and now “Jennifer.” We shall watch the response of US and Philippine authorities on the killing amidst the issues raised and fanned against EDCA and VFA as wrong steps may erase the chances of American troops basing in the Philippines, ever again.