Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday that the Philippines is not obliged to send soldiers as support force for the United States under the 67-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty in a war with Iran due to the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Lorenzana said the MDT between the Philippines and US only covers conflict in areas within the Asia-Pacific region.
“I believe that the MDT covers only conflicts here in our region,” Lorenzana said.
Signed on Aug. 30, 1951 in Washington D.C., the MDT states that both the Philippines and US would support each other if either nations were to be attacked by a third-party country. The provisions of the accord were detailed in eight articles.
Under Article IV, it was stated that: “Each Party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area on either of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declare that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.”
Meanwhile, Article V states that “an armed attack on either of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the Parties, or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean, its armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific.”
New Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. said they will adhere to the policies of the national government if it decides to send troops to help US.
“Whatever the policy of the government, we will do it,” Santos said. “That will be reviewed by the national government and, of course, the Armed Forces.”
The Defense department is continuously monitoring the escalating tension between Washington and Tehran especially since there are over 1,100 Filipinos in Iran as of 2017 – most of them Overseas Filipino Workers.
Lorenzana said that they will wait for the recommendations of the concerned agencies if there is a need to fetch the OFWs in the conflict zone. (Martin Sadongdong)
