Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairperson of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, is pushing for a renegotiation of the 15-year-old
Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) after both the Philippines and the
United States failed to alter the “objectionable” provisions of the
deal.
Santiago said she will file a proposed legislation on a resolution
she introduced five years ago titled: “Resolution to Renegotiate or
Terminate the VFA.”
“I’m proud to say that five years ago, when I filed the resolution
and defended it on the floor of the Senate, the Senate subsequently
passed the resolution. So we’ve already had five years for the two
parties to renegotiate and in fact there is an ongoing panel headed by
the Executive Secretary that is charged with this task,’’ she said.
“But it has never been renegotiated. It is time that the executive
department of the government heeded the call of the legislative
department to renegotiate this – or what some senators call review.
There’s a review panel ongoing but they’re not reviewing it, much less
renegotiating it.”
Appearing before the Senate finance sub-committee chaired by Sen.
Loren Legarda Friday, Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alberto F. del
Rosario said he is not sure the US government would agree to have the
VFA amended. There are calls for the abrogation or renegotiation of the
VFA following the killing of transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude
allegedly by a US Marine Private First Class (PFC) Joseph Scott
Pemberton in Olongapo last October 11.
Del Rosario and other DFA officials appeared before the Legarda
sub-committee to defend the proposed P12.8-billion budget of the DFA for
2015.
Nevertheless, the VFA is being reviewed at the department level by DFA officials and US officials since last year, he said.
“We are reviewing the VFA in its entirety to see how we can fine-tune
it. The sticky points are: jurisdiction, custody (of erring military
men exemplified by the Pemberton case), and official duty. We are
looking at all those,” he added.
Del Rosario assured Legarda, the concurrent vice-chair of the Senate
national defense committee that Pemberton would not leave the country
and would not be spirited out to evade facing Philippine courts.
Pemberton is currently held at the Joint US Assistance Group (JUSMAG)
inside Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City where the Armed Forces and the
Department of National Defense (DND) holds fort.
‘Although Pemberton is in a so-called detention facility, which is I
think a van inside the military camp, he is being guarded by Americans.
What for? What is he being guarded for? There are Filipino members of
the Armed Forces who are already guarding the premises,’’ Santiago
noted.
‘’I find that offensive to us, because it indicates that there is no
trust on the capability of our own Armed Forces. If we did this in
America, if, for example, there was a Filipino who was in a detention
facility there by joint agreement of the two governments, and there were
already American guards, can we insist that there be Filipino guards
there? I find that unacceptable,’’she added.
Santiago cited several reasons why she feels the VFA should be scrapped.
The VFA, she says “is void for vagueness.” It did not define ‘’visit’’ which is crucial. After 15 years, should it still be a ‘’visit’’ by US armed forces?The US is impecunious as its debt from China is $1.27 trillion.The VFA does not imply the US will come to the aid of the PH in case of a firefight between the PH and China in their territorial dispute over parts of the Spratly island chain, some islets and shoals such as Scarborough Shoal at the West Philippine Sea. Then State Secretary Hillary Clinton stated in 2014 that the US will stay neutral in case of a Philippine-China fire fight.Although the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the VFA, the voting was split.US President Barack Obama’s ‘’Asia Pivot’’ strategy has been set aside because of the resurgence of violence in the Middle East and the Russian adventurism in Ukraine and in the Crimea. The 1955 RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) does not provide for automatic US help in case the Philippines is actually attacked as the White House still goes to Congress for approval for military intervention.The alleged financial benefits for the Philippines under the VFA for the most part consist of junk or outdated military equipment. The VFA is a failure because the AFP has not been modernized sufficiently to keep up with its Southeast Asian neighbors and terrorist groups are still active.
“Let us not hide under the umbrella of the VFA. Let us turn to economic diplomacy with China,’’ Santiago stressed.
As far as Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo is concerned, now is not the best
time to review the 15-year old Visiting Forces of Agreement (VFA). It
should be done after the murder case against Pemberton is settled.
“The best time to review it is during sober times, not when passions
are very high,” Quimbo said in an interview yesterday after US
Ambassador Philip Goldberg stressed that the VFA review should not be
linked to the custody issue of Pemberton.
AKO Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe, a senior member of the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs, agreed with Quimbo. “An objective
review of the VFA cannot be done in a highly emotionally charged
environment,” Batocabe noted.
“If we have to review VFA, we should do it not primarily because of
what happened to Laude, but because it is a part of the regular process
and once we start the review, the cases of Laude and Nicole should also
be taken into consideration, among other issues,” he said.
“It is not a good time to renegotiate the VFA under emotionally charged environment,” he pointed out.
He said the renegotiation of the 1999 agreement “must be based on
mutually beneficial concerns and not because of irritants and problems
that arise from its implementation.”
“As it is, there is still a mechanism which has yet to be tested to
deal with irritants such as the Laude murder. It is only when these
mechanisms are not working when we should start renegotiating. So, let
it work first,” Batocabe added.
Santiago, meanwhile, found an ally in the Lower House. 1-BAP
party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello agrees that the VFA should be
renegotiated
“I agree that the VFA should not be linked to the Laude killing but
there is need to review the VFA to clear the gray areas on jurisdiction
and more specially to emphasize the recognition and assertion of
Philippine sovereignty,” Bello, a former justice secretary said.
Goldberg earlier said while the US government recognized the right of
the Philippines to bring “additional things to the table” as far as the
VFA implementing rules are concerned, the talks on VFA review “should
not be done in the middle of something.”
Del Rosario, for his part said they are looking at the smooth
implementation of the VFA “because if there is a material change, then
we have to resubmit the whole thing to the Senate.”
Despite VFA’s perceived lopsided provisions in favor of US,
Malacañang believes the VFA is beneficial to the defense strategy of the
country.
At the roundtable discussion at the US embassy Friday, Goldberg said
nobody should question US commitment to Philippine security.
“Our security commitment as expressed by President Obama last April
is iron-clad… we exercise together all the time, we entered into an
enhanced defense cooperation agreement (EDCA) together, we’ve been
working for many years with the Philippines on counter terrorism issues.
Our commitment to the Philippines security is strong,” said Goldberg in
a roundtable discussion at the embassy last Friday.
“We have backed the Philippines on issues related to the South China
Sea, the case that it’s brought before the tribunal without taking a
position on various claims and lent very strong diplomatic support and
other support to the Philippines on their pursuit of their claims in the
South China Sea. Again, without saying that the United States has a
position on the claims,” said Goldberg.
“So I think that our support for Philippine security is clear. It
has been demonstrated… and so nobody should question our commitment to
Philippine security,” he said.
