![Duterte threatens to stop EDCA](http://maniolas.com/wp-content/uploads/thumb-cache/2bc43fc811603602fb23829a81b627f2-8e4b466da3d1d6d265d0252d2890acda-200x149-75-nocrop.jpg)
President Rodrigo Duterte. AP FILE PHOTO MANILA — President Duterte threatened on Sunday (Oct. 2), to stop the implementation of the Philippines-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) as he revealed he would soon announce a new policy that his government would observe in connection with the country’s ties with the United States. Mr. Duterte said his government has been reviewing the EDCA, reminding the US government that while it might be an official document, it was just an executive agreement not even signed two years ago by then president Benigno Aquino III, but only by his official representatives in the negotiation for EDCA. He said EDCA, which was signed in 2014 but was not implemented until the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in January, was only signed by then defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin and a US aide. “Better think twice now because I would be asking you to leave the Philippines altogether,” President Duterte said to the US government. That would happen, said the President, if the US were “unable to produce the signature bearing the permit to conduct war games.” The President made the statement as he reiterated he would strengthen the country’s ties with China and Russia, disclosing for the first time he had talked to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev while he was in Laos for the Asean summit last month. The President said he met with Medvedev and told him about the way the US was humiliating him and that the latter told him he would Read More …