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THE PHILIPPINES

For four years, U.S. and Filipino diplomats have been jousting over the vexed question of U.S. military bases in the Philippines. Last week, on the eve of his recall to Washington (to become an adviser to Secretary of State Herter), U.S.

Ambassador Charles E. ("Chip") Bohlen capped his two-year tour of duty in Manila by concluding a base agreement that satisfied both Filipino pride and U.S. security requirements.

Under a 1947 agreement, long denounced as unfair by Filipinos, the U.S. had acquired gg-year leases on 23 Philippine bases, and the U.S. Navy was running the town of Olongapo (pop. 60,000) almost like a unit of its own Pacific Fleet (TIME, July 20). Under the new terms negotiated by Bohlen and Filipino Foreign Secretary Felixberto Serrano, the U.S. has now agreed to:

P:Reduce all leases from 99 to a renewable 25 years.

P:Return all unused bases to the Philippines and turn Olongapo back to Filipino civilian administration. P:Consult with the Philippine government before basing long-range missiles in the Philippines, and on all movement of Philippine-based forces not covered by the SEATO and U.S.-Philippine mutual-defense treaties.

In return, the U.S. will keep its four biggest Philippine naval and air bases--Subic Bay, Sangley Point Naval Air Station, Clark Field and Camp John Hay--as well as three lesser installations. Philippine President Carlos Garcia, who clearly intends to point with pride to the base agreement in the forthcoming Philippine off-year elections, was quick to praise Bohlen's statesmanship and to declare that "less capable hands" might have imperiled U.S.-Philippine friendship. But Garcia's warmth did not necessarily augur an easy time for Bohlen's prospective successor, John D. Hickerson, now U.S. Ambassador to Finland. Still left for Hickerson to settle: the long-standing dispute as to how much jurisdiction Philippine courts should have over U.S. servicemen.

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