If the contract is to be terminated, each party must announce it one year in advance. [2] All other areas currently occupied by the army and navy are not considered bases, but temporary facilities that must be evacuated within two years. The U.S. military assures me that most of these temporary facilities will be evacuated in a much shorter time and made available for public and private use. The duration of the agreement is 99 years, subject to extensions that may be made by mutual agreement between the two governments. Since then, disaster relief and crisis response have become a major priority in the U.S.-Philippines security relationship, particularly after Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), and is an important impetus for the EDCA agreement. [Citation required] The United States Marines were among the first to arrive in the Philippines after the devastating typhoon of November 8, 2013 hit the Philippines. At the immediate request of the Philippine government, three days after the storm, U.S. and international humanitarian organizations arrived to help and assist the thousands of wounded and homeless. [14] The U.S. government has provided more than $37 million in assistance. [15] The Mutual Defense Treaty was signed in 1951 and ratified in 1952 by the governments of the United States and the Philippines. The purpose of the treaty was to strengthen the “fabric of peace” in the Pacific by formally adopting an agreement to defend the territory of the other in the event of an external attack.
[8] In accordance with this treaty, the United States maintained several military bases in the Philippines, including Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Force Base. In 1992, the bases were closed after the Philippine Senate rejected, by a close vote, a contract that would have extended the lease of the bases. The treaty was concluded because of US reluctance to set a fixed timetable for the withdrawal of troops and to guarantee that no nuclear weapons would pass through the base. [9] To resolve the difficulties of the doses, which were more practical than political or military, Ambassador Elizalde took to Washington a series of instructions that dealt in detail with our opinions and justifications. . . .