(Re)Negotiating East and Southeast Asia: Region, Regionalism, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by Alice D. Ba

Author:Alice D. Ba [Ba, Alice D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780804776301
Google: miPv9G7nTvUC
Goodreads: 35191557
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2009-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

The Manglapus Initiative

Questions about U.S. security commitments in Southeast Asia emerged as early as 1986. That year Philippines’ People Power revolution ousted Ferdinand Marcos, brought into power a new democratic government, and opened the door for more nationalist voices, especially those more critical of the U.S. presence in the Philippines, to gain influence. As most notably symbolized by President Aquino’s decision to visit ASEAN neighbors before Washington, the regime change represented an opportunity for Manila, which had been very pro–United States under Marcos, to pursue a more independent foreign policy.8 That window of opportunity widened further with Aquino’s June 1986 convening of a Constitutional Commission. Charged with the drafting of a new Philippine constitution, that commission considered new constitutional provisions for U.S. bases in the Philippines. The new government would also come under pressure from communist forces, which made elimination of U.S. bases a key demand in their negotiations with Manila in 1987. In newly democratic, post-Marcos Philippines, Manila’s relationship with Washington and especially U.S. bases had become hot and sensitive subjects of debate, as well as tests of one’s nationalist credentials.

Pro–U.S. forces were able to defeat more extreme proposals that categorically banned foreign military bases, troops, and facilities from Philippine national territory, but two clauses in the new constitution kept the door open for further challenge. The first allowed U.S. bases to remain only until 1991 (the expiration date of the extant agreement), at which time all foreign bases would be banned from the Philippines “except in accordance with a new treaty duly concurred by the Senate” or if deemed necessary by Congress, popular referendum, or plebiscite. The other provision restricted nuclear weapons from the Philippines. In the new constitution’s Declaration of Principles, the former U.S. colony asserted that “the Philippines, consistent with the national interest, adopts and pursues a policy of freedom from nuclear weapons in its territory.”9 In short, while both permitted continuation of U.S.–Philippine security arrangements, both also made clear that their continuation was temporary and conditional.

The latter provision in fact provided the basis for subsequent legislation outlawing the possession, storage, and transport of nuclear weapons in Philippine territory.10 Introduced in August 1987 and ratified by a wide margin in the Senate in June 1988, the legislation put back some of the bite that had been lost in the earlier redrafting of the new Philippine constitution. It also aligned the Philippines, which had long battled its pro-American image abroad, with more independent forces and recent nuclear weapon–free zone initiatives in Latin America, the South Pacific, and closer to home, ASEAN’s own calls for a Southeast Asian ZOPFAN and nuclear-free zone, the latter of which U.S. bases in the Philippines had posed a key contradiction.11 It was immediately apparent to most that the legislation had potentially serious implications for U.S security commitments in Southeast Asia. Similar (and, in fact, less strict) legislation passed in New Zealand in 1985 had already led to the suspension of U.S.–New Zealand security commitments and, in effect, the end of the ANZUS security alliance.

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