Unfinished business

Barack Obama, the seventh sitting US president to visit the Philippines, arrives today to discuss defense and security issues that may well have a bearing on the next generation of Filipinos. President Aquino will honor his country’s highest interests if he uses the opportunity to also remind Obama of America’s unfinished business in the Philippines.

After Dwight Eisenhower in 1960, Lyndon Johnson in 1966, Richard Nixon in 1969, Gerald Ford in 1975, Bill Clinton in 1994 and 1996 and George W. Bush (who couldn’t be bothered to spare more than a few hours) in 2003, it is Obama’s turn to visit. We have no doubt that the first black American president, much more popular abroad than in his closely divided nation, will meet an enthusiastic reception from a US-friendly population.

And the timing, while delayed, is still right. China’s increasing recklessness in asserting its maritime and territorial claims in the region has forced many countries to review its relationship with the United States. The declaration of the so-called US pivot to Asia in 2011 was welcomed by many regional capitals, because the United States remains the only credible counterweight to China.

But the delay points to Obama’s problem; his visit, originally scheduled for October last year, had to be postponed because American partisan politics caused a shutdown of the US federal government. Behind the generally positive reception to Obama’s pivot to Asia, then, is widespread concern that the American president does not in fact have the political support to fund it or follow through on it.

Obama’s week-long, four-country swing through the region is meant precisely to assuage those and related concerns: In Japan and in South Korea, he reiterated American commitment to come to those countries’ defense in the event of war; in Malaysia (as in Japan), he emphasized the economic aspect of the American pivot.

And in the Philippines? We can expect him to praise the recently concluded peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to laud the Aquino administration’s continuing campaign against corruption, to recognize the country’s steady economic growth—and to continue to offer support for the modernization of the Philippine military.

We do not expect him to mention the dispute with China specifically; indeed, we fully expect him to hew to the original American line on maritime disputes dating to the early years of the 20th century: He will not take sides. But he will probably refer to the signing of the Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation, which is scheduled to take place this morning, as an unmistakable sign of increased American support. The context will not be in doubt: China’s less than peaceful rise to power.

But this same agreement is also a symbol for something else altogether: The continuing, and fundamental, inequality in Philippine-American relations. We have long advocated that any enhancement in defense cooperation between the Philippines and the United States must have the consent of the Senate, because the agreement is for all intents and purposes another military treaty. Malacañang’s refusal to submit the agreement to a largely friendly Senate is inexplicable.

But consider. One primary reason Manila refuses to negotiate directly with Beijing on our conflicting claims, preferring the multilateral diplomacy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the international forums provided by the United Nations, is the reasonable assumption that Beijing will use bilateral negotiations to have its way.

That is the same concern critics of the still-unseen Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation have raised: In the negotiations, the United States may have used its political and economic power to get concessions not necessarily in the long-term interest of the Philippines.

The agreement is fine as long as American policies (e.g., the pivot to Asia) are seen to coincide with Philippine needs. But the lessons of history are all too clear: America’s interests are its own. This explains why, despite numerous official acknowledgments about the toxic legacy American forces left behind in Clark and Subic over 20 years ago, the United States has failed to properly dispose of the toxic waste. This explains why, 15 months after the USS Guardian ran aground on Tubbataha Reef, the fine of $1.4 million remains unpaid. Time to remind Mr. Obama that these and other items of unfinished business have been tabled long enough.