Not yet time to invoke PH-US treaty over WPS incidents – Marcos

by Nestor Corrales Inquirer.net

BAGUIO CITY — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday, February 18 said he was not yet inclined to invoke the country’s Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States over incidents in the West Philippine Sea because it would only escalate rather than cool down tensions.

Speaking to reporters here after joining the annual alumni homecoming of the

Philippine Military Academy (PMA) at Fort del Pilar, the president said activating the MDT at this time would only be “counterproductive.”

“It is because if we activate that, what we are doing is escalating, intensifying the tensions in the area,” Marcos said, adding that the Philippine government is in “constant contact with our treaty partners,” such as the United States and other countries in the Asian region.

“And that I think is the

Based on the latest price monitoring of the Department of Agriculture, concurrently headed by Romuladez’s cousin, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., local red onions are being sold in markets at around P120 to P200 per kilogram, while local white onions fetch P90 to P160 per kilo.

While it has no available data on the price of local garlic, DA noted that imported garlic is pegged at P90 to P130. (By Beatrice Pinlac/ Inquirer.net) better recourse rather than to go directly to the Mutual Defense Treaty which again, I am very concerned would provoke the tensions rather than cool the tensions down,” he said. The MDT, signed in 1951, is an agreement between the Philippines and the United States to defend each other in case of an armed attack on a public vessel, troops or an airship.

Serious concern Marcos has summoned PAGE 8