By Samuel P. Medenilla & Butch Fernandez
MALACAÑANG on Sunday insisted that the termination of the Philippines’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, as sought by President Duterte, will have no negative impact on the country’s border security.
This, as the Senate had yet to firm up a consensus on what exactly its role would be, if ever, in terminating an agreement that it ratified, but which the US Senate did not—casting it, according to one view, in the mold of a mere executive agreement.
Meanwhile, the former foreign affairs secretary urged the administration to move slowly on the decision to terminate, and cited five reasons for caution, including the VFA’s supposed essential role in carrying out the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).
In a radio interview on Sunday, however, Presidential spokesman Salvador S. Panelo said the VFA merely listed the “privileges” for the foreign side, which he said heavily favored American military personnel.
“Under the VFA, if they [American military personnel] committed any crime here, we will not have jurisdiction over them unless the crime is of significant importance to us. They could also send their ships and armed forces here without the need of visa and passport requirements. So in simpler terms, VFA favors the Americans,” Panelo said.
Duterte last week directed the secretaries of foreign affairs and national defense to start the process of scuttling the VFA, forged early in the Estrada administration, as he angrily reacted to the cancellation by the US of the visa of Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, his first National Police chief who oversaw his controversial war on drugs in its first two and a half years.
Senate’s role
Meanwhile, there is yet no firm consensus in the Senate on what exactly is the chamber’s role in the process of junking the VFA that it ratified, but which the US Senate did not.
Given the hazy status of the VFA as either a treaty or an executive agreement, Senate President Vicente Sotto III sounded tentative over the weekend on what would be the treaty-ratifying chamber’s next step.
“The way the resolution that ratified the VFA was worded, none,” the senate president replied when asked Sunday if members of the treaty-ratifying chamber have a role to play in abrogating the VFA.
Sotto, however, added, “the new ones, we already inserted a proviso that any abrogation must also have the consent of the Senate,” apparently referring to similar, albeit smaller accords the Philippines subsequently forged with other countries after the US.
The Senate leader conveyed his support on learning that Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. had confirmed that he and Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana were directed to start the process of terminating the VFA. Locsin said their immediate move is “first calling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the Philippine side sees it as a treaty, while the US side, an executive agreement.” Locsin made the revelation in a tweet on Friday, hours before flying to the US on unrelated matters.
“In that case, we should have terminated it a long time ago. It is one-sided,” Sotto said Sunday in a text message to the Businessmirror.
Revisit junking—del Rosario
Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario preached caution, however, and cited “several valid reasons” for fully revisiting the decision to terminate.
“First, the VFA is an essential agreement to both the Philippines and the USA in effectively implementing the Mutual Defense Treaty.
“Second, without the VFA, making the MDT work would be more challenging, especially since we now have specific external threats as well as more devastating natural calamities,” del Rosario said in a statement on Sunday.
He added: “Third, terminating the VFA would serve to actualize our pivot toward China against the strong and vehement objections of our people.
“Fourth, while the VFA is admittedly an imperfect agreement, it would interrupt the benefits of the MDT with regards to the joint training and exercises, the pursuit of modernization, achieving interoperability and providing assistance during natural calamities.”
Finally, del Rosario recalled that “the quick US relief response during the Yolanda disaster was made possible by the VFA. Other countries wanted to immediately respond but were constrained by the lack of legal arrangements for their troops to enter the Philippines.”
At its peak, del Rosario claimed, “the US military efforts included more than 13,000 military personnel, 66 aircraft and 12 naval vessels. The US delivered more than 2,500 tons of relief supplies and evacuated over 21,000 people.”
If Duterte wants to improve the MDT and the VFA, “he may wish to accept the invitation to meet President Trump” where, del Rosario said, he could convey his “full expectations pertaining to our bilateral relations.”
Other pacts
Panelo, on Sunday, noted that the Philippines will still honor its other defense agreements with the US for now.
“As I said, only VFA will be terminated…. It [termination] does not [cover] all other treaties which are [related] to the security of the Philippines’s alliance with the United States,” Panelo said.
He stressed that even without the VFA, the government could still conduct military exercises with the US forces within Philippine territories.
Panelo said currently the VFA is still in effect since the government has only started its unilateral cancellation process.
Prior to the US visa cancellation of de la Rosa, the US Senate issued a resolution calling for travel restrictions for Philippine government officials seen as involved in the prosecution and detention of Sen. Leila de Lima, Duterte’s critic.
Panelo said de la Rosas’s visa issue is just one of the many factors which prompted Duterte to order the junking of the VFA.
He said Duterte was irked by the US’s alleged “violation of the country’s sovereignty.”
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Actions that the US is scheduled to take in reply to the Philippine President cancellation of the Visiting Forces Agreement. The immediate cancellation of the US/Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty; all US Visas issued to Philippine citizens; all military and economic aid; closures of the US Embassy and removal of all US equipment from the Philippines; to include cancellation of all USAID programs and other economic and humanitarian aid and exchange programs