A “visit” is a short stay; a journey to and stay or short sojourn at a place, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition; also, to stay temporarily with (someone) or at (a place) as a guest or tourist. Per Oxford Lexico, it can also mean to go see (someone or something) for a specific purpose.
China has converted what were once submerged features in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) into island armed fortresses. To make matters worse, it recently passed a law authorizing its naval forces to fire on whoever enters what it calls its own body of water, demarcated by the discredited “nine-dash line.”
Juxtapose that with the United States, which built military bases in the country and ceremoniously turned them over to the Philippine government at the end of the basing agreement. Unlike China, the United States never grabbed any Philippine property that would allow it to keep an eye on the Western Pacific Corridor. US naval vessels, if they wish to, can slip in and out of the country. Not being a rogue force, however, the United States would not do what Chinese ships like Jia Geng and many others have done, romping around the country’s territorial waters without prior authorization from the Philippine government and breaking established maritime rules like turning off their automatic identification system to escape detection, showing a ringing contempt for our duly-constituted authorities.
In 2014, the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces (PCVF) crafted an Omnibus IRR to systematize and smoothen the conduct of military exercises in the country by visiting foreign military forces. The PCVF, together with inter-agency representatives (I was one of them), pored over the 1999 bilateral agreement with a fine-tooth comb and came out with an Omnibus Policy that would ensure that our country’s sovereignty was respected and our laws fully observed at all times.
TED P. PEÑAFLOR II
tedpenaflorii@yahoo.com.ph