Senate President Vicente Sotto III yesterday asked the executive branch to give Congress time to review, rethink and assess the country’s defense relationships amid reports that President Rodrigo Duterte may again suspend the PH-US Visiting Forces Agreement.
“It’s a good move while the Executive Department is reviewing the pros and cons of the agreement, especially our Defense relationship,” Sotto said.
He said amendments to the VFA may be necessary to ensure that provisions deemed lopsided in favor of the US are corrected.
On Wednesday, the Palace said Duterte is in “no immediate rush” to abrogate the country’s VFA with the US as the termination’s suspension is expected to end next month.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the President might have the option to extend the agreement for another six months or more.
“That VFA termination has an option of being further extended by another six months. So, my thinking is, perhaps the President will invoke the second six month time to finally abrogate the VFA,” he said in an interview over CNN Philippines.
“But, anyway, what I am saying is, there is no immediate rush for the President to decide because the notification we sent to the Americans gives them at least one year leeway before it’s abrogated,” Roque added.
In June this year, Duterte suspended his decision to abandon the pact because “he saw that the tensions in the South China Sea were getting in the way of a united response to the COVID-19 crisis,” Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. earlier said.
The termination was initially made on Feb. 11, 2020.
Under the VFA, which governs the conduct of American troops in the country, the abrogation of the pact takes effect 180 days after the US government receives the notice.
Duterte scrapped the VFA over its alleged inequities in its treaty provisions and the US’s alleged assault on the country’s sovereignty and disrespect for its judicial system.
Duterte pulled out of the accord after Washington canceled the visa of his ally, Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa, who headed the government’s war on drugs when he served as national police chief.
Some US officials have expressed concern over the apparent disregard for human rights in the Philippines’ anti-narcotics campaign under the Duterte administration.
The VFA, signed in 1998, is anchored on the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty of Manila and Washington.