Manila Moves to Renegotiate U.S. Base Treaty

President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ government, upset by a U.S. bid to cut military aid to the Philippines, moved Friday to renegotiate a treaty allowing the operation of vital U.S. military bases in the country.

Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile filed a National Assembly resolution calling for the abrogation and renegotiation of the agreement covering the American bases, including Clark Air Base, home of the 13th Air Force, and the sprawling Subic Bay Naval Base north of Manila, where the 7th Fleet is based.

U.S. officials consider the bases vital to the defense of the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

The resolution was filed one day after Marcos called for the creation of a parliamentary committee to study possible responses to moves in the U.S. Congress to sharply reduce military aid to his 20-year-old government.

The aid levels are spelled out in the five-year treaty, which is to expire in 1989. The pact calls for $475 million in economic aid and $425 million in military assistance in exchange for U.S. use of bases in the Philippines.

House Cut Aid Request

The House of Representatives last week sliced the Reagan Administration’s request for $100 million in military aid to the Philippines in 1986 to $25 million, and increased economic aid from $95 million to $155 million.

Supporters said the action was designed to further pressure Marcos into implementing economic, military and political reforms in the Philippines. The Senate, however, has approved the Administration’s request, so final aid levels must still be hammered out by the two houses.

Marcos said his government had been the target of a “big lie campaign,” which had apparently influenced American perceptions of the Philippines and “encouraged ideas of intervention in our affairs.”

Enrile’s office said he filed the motion in his capacity as a member of Parliament. The resolution, signed by 13 other ruling party members, will be referred Monday to a committee in the Assembly, where the ruling party holds a two-thirds majority.

“Such actions are a clear derogation of the decision-making prerogatives of the Filipino people in shaping their military and economic plans and could in fact be construed as an act of intervention in the internal affairs of the Republic of the Philippines,” Enrile’s resolution said.

The resolution quoted a clause from the bases agreement, negotiated in 1983, that stated: “We (the Reagan Administration) do not intend to tell the government of the Philippines how to spend the compensation we are prepared to provide nor how to allocate its defense budget.”

Enriles’ resolution noted that the Philippines has always considered the money “rental” payments. The United States regards it as aid.