Speed up review of VFA, Palace told

Manila, Philippines - Senate committee on foreign relations chair Loren Legarda called on Malacañang yesterday to speed up its review of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the United States and the Philippines so that the Senate can finally decide on what to do with it.

Acting on Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s call for a review and possible termination of the VFA because of its reported flaws, the Senate has conducted a hearing on the issue and is now awaiting the result of the Palace review.

The hearing conducted in November last year prompted several senators to push for the renegotiation of the VFA and a review of the Mutual Defense Treaty with the US.

Officials from Malacañang led by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., who chairs the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACOM), said they need time to review the treaty but stressed its importance to the Philippines.

Ochoa had said during the November hearing that the review would be concluded by the end of last year.

Legarda, co-chairperson of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA (LOVFA), said the committee is already aware of the views expressed by some sectors on the VFA, particularly on claims regarding its being lopsided.

“The Senate is duty-bound to oversee the implementation of the VFA. In fact, the LOVFA already conducted a hearing in November 2010 to jumpstart the Senate review process. We need, however, to await the review by the Executive branch,” Legarda said.

“The VFA Commission assured us it will forward its report to the Oversight Committee once it is done reviewing the agreement. Hopefully, that will be completed soon,” she said.

Legarda said the committee would examine closely the recommendations of the VFACOM as well as those of other interest groups.

“At the end of the day, the Senate will decide with one goal in mind - to serve the best interest of the Filipino people,” Legarda said.

Santiago said the “fatal flaw” of the VFA is its failure to specify the period of stay of the visiting forces and to define what activities they are allowed to engage in while in Philippine territory.

“It calls itself a visiting agreement, but it has been in force for some 10 years. Its flaws and failures warrant its termination,” Santiago said.

Santiago argued that the VFA, just like any other law of the land, can be terminated by Congress unilaterally through a joint resolution.

“The Executive’s role is to give notice of termination to the United States, although the decision itself is one for Congress to make,” she added.

She said the VFA “shall remain in force until the expiration of 180 days from the date on which either party gives the other party notice in writing that it desires to terminate the agreement.”

“I’ve already said that in my view it is unconstitutional. We’ll have to be able to convince the President to give notice to the other party pursuant to the terms of the VFA, so that we can terminate it. All we have to do is to give them notice, I think six months in advance,” Santiago said.

Palace happy with VFA

But Malacañang said it is “generally happy” with the VFA and that its review centers only on some provisions.

US ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. earlier said the VFA was “working very well” for the two countries and that it made possible the May 15-19 visit in the country of the nuclear-powered carrier USS Carl Vinson and its three escort vessels. It was from the deck of the Carl Vinson that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was buried at sea after his death at the hands of US commandos in Pakistan.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Philippines is giving importance to the long-standing defense relations between the Philippines and the US.

She said the review of the VFA was “routine” as those that had been undertaken for other agreements.

“But, again, in the course of the review, if there are small issues to be raised eventually, (then we will review them),” Valte said over radio dzRB.

She said any changes in the VFA must be mutually agreed upon and that the government would have to bring up to the US the provisions it would want to modify.

At present, Valte said there were no recommendations yet from the VFA Commission as to which provisions should be re-negotiated.

A controversial provision in the VFA is on the custody of US soldiers committing crimes while in the Philippines. The US wants to take custody of its personnel being tried before Philippine courts for criminal offense.

This was highlighted in the rape case of a Filipina against a US soldier in 2005. The case dragged on for several years but US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith - confined at the US embassy all throughout the case - was eventually freed when the supposed victim recanted her story. - With Aurea Calica