SENATORS crossed party lines on Tuesday and adopted Resolution 312 prodding President Duterte to reconsider a Palace plan to end the Philippines’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, hours after Manila sent the termination notice.
Principally sponsored by Senate President Vicente Sotto III with Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon and Senator Panfilo Lacson as coauthors, Resolution 312 was unanimously adopted even as administration Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who was earlier denied a US visa, abstained.
“That (Resolution 312) is the sense of the Senate… for the President to reconsider because we want to review the VFA,” Sotto said, adding, “It appears that the President does not want to review the VFA.”
Hours before the Senate majority vote for the resolution, Malacanang Palace announced it had directed Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. to sign and send the termination notice to Washington.
Locsin, who on February 6 had outlined at a Senate hearing the Philippines’ gains from the VFA and had advocated a “vigorous review” of the treaty and not an outright abrogation, confirmed later on Tuesday he had done as ordered and the letter was received by the US Embassy in Manila.
The actual termination will take place 180 days after the notice.
Senators push on
Despite the formal receipt of the termination notice, Sotto said they will send the Senate Resolution to Malacañang as “it is only proper that we send the Resolution and, of course, remember that there is another resolution pending in the Senate wherein members of the Senate were asking or looking at the possibility that what it means is [if] we approve, we ratify, we should also be consulted when it is terminated.”
Sotto added: “It is my view that the better way to go is to review the agreement and ask the executive department to reconsider its intent of abrogation, while the Senate, who is a partner in this agreement, is reviewing it.”
Resolution 312 said: “Fully recognizing the authority of the Chief Executive and without intending to disrespect a coequal body, prior to unilaterally terminating the VFA, the Senate should be given the opportunity to conduct a review and assessment of the impact of the withdrawal on the country’s security and economy, specifically with regard to intelligence information sharing, military aid and financing and technical assistance extended by the US relative to the continuing threats posed by domestic and foreign terrorist groups, and ultimately to the stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region.”
The Resolution was prompted by Duterte’s call for the termination of the VFA after US authorties canceled dela Rosa’s visa last January 24. Officials had said the visa cancellation was not the sole reason for the move, but only the latest in a string of ugly incidents.
At the same time, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman of the Foreign Relations committee who sponsored Resolution 312 for plenary consideration, recalled Locsin Jr. telling a Senate hearing on the Philippines-United States Mutual Defense Treaty last February 6, 2020, that “termination of the VFA must be weighed in terms of the overall interest of the country.”
Senate concurrence
At the same time, Minority Leader Drilon moved to include consideration of Senate Resolution 305 expressing the sense of the Senate that termination or withdrawal from treaties and international agreements concurred in by the Senate shall be valid and effective “only upon concurrence by the Senate.”
Image credits: Roy Domingo