January 22, 2002, AFP, Proposed deal to resupply US forces from the Philippines,

January 22, 2002, AFP, Proposed deal to resupply US forces from the Philippines,

MANILA, Jan 22 (AFP) -

The US and the Philippines have drawn up a draft agreement to give American military vessels and aircraft resupply facilities on Filipino territory, officials said here Tuesday.

The draft accord drawn up by government negotiators is now on the desk of Philippines Vice President Teofisto Guingona, the concurrent foreign secretary and awaiting his signature, armed forces chief of staff General Diomedio Villanueva said.

The proposed agreement contains provisions "for the servicing, for the supply of their planes and troops, how they are going to be supported when they come here for training exercises and the like," the general said over DZRH radio.

"In other words, it is a support matter that will be there to help them when they come here. For example, when they dock (at a Philippine port), it contains provisions that require us to put in supplies, certain logistics installations to support them."

Villanueva disclosed the existence of the draft document amid controversy over the ongoing deployment of up to 660 US troops in the southern Philippines to advise their local counterparts on how to defeat the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrilla group.

Both governments say the group has ties with the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Guingona has expressed reservations over the US military deployments, and is scheduled to meet with Arroyo and other senior officials on Wednesday. Press reports said the vice president, a nationalist, is weighing his options including quitting the cabinet.

Villanueva said the defense departments of the two countries, bound by a 1951 mutual defense treaty, negotiated the draft Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA).

"The MLSA will not be in effect if the (foreign affairs) secretary will not sign it," he stressed.

Villanueva dismissed speculation that the proposed accord would violate the Filipino constitution, which bans the stationing of foreign troops or supplies on Philippine territory unless under a treaty.

He said the defense and justice departments have "discussed the legality" of the document "in all aspects -- constitutionality, viability, and how it relates to the laws that we have here."

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez told DZRH that the proposed accord would be in the form of an "executive agreement", as opposed to a treaty that would require the concurrence of the Filipino Senate.

"We have introduced certain corrections and concerns so that this agreement would conform to our laws," Perez added.

Villanueva did not specify which ports and air bases have been chosen to hold the logistics facilities.

In 1991 the Philippine Senate, of which Guingona then was a member, voted to reject a new military bases treaty with the United States.

It forced the Pentagon to vacate Subic Naval Base, Clark Air Base and several other smaller facilities in the Philippines.