Senators vow to vote down Duterte plan to abrogate VFA

From the Business Mirror (Dec 19): Senators vow to vote down Duterte plan to abrogate VFA

SENATORS are firming up an early consensus to vote down President Duterte’s expressed wish to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States, which took effect after its ratification by the Senate in 1999.

But Senate sources indicated they would likely have to contend with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s defeated running mate, who returned to the Senate after losing his vice-presidential bid and now chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations with oversight jurisdiction on matters involving international agreements.

Duterte over the weekend voiced plans to pursue drastic changes in foreign relations and national defense policies, including possible abrogation of the VFA.

Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson, however, promptly made known his opposition to the President’s plan, with other senators voicing similar sentiments. 

Lacson, in an interview, declared he would vote against VFA abrogation should the issue be submitted for plenary voting in the Senate.

“I will most likely vote against abrogation of the VFA to give meaning to our long-standing Mutual Defense Treaty with the US,” Lacson said.

He added that the Philippines needs rotating US military presence here “to maintain a balance of power in the West Philippine Sea.”

Moreover, Lacson noted that the training and joint military  exercises between the Armed Forces and visiting US troops “are important components of our troops’ combat readiness.”

Lacson said “there is a lot to learn from those exercises, which we have nurtured over a long period of time.”

He also noted that it is “mutually beneficial” for both countries to maintain such an alliance.
At the same time, Sen. Leila M. de Lima expressed hope that Duterte would not make rush decisions involving foreign policies, like terminating the VFA with the US.

She suggested that such matters should not be decided precipitously or carelessly without any clear alternatives, precisely because of what the President calls “the changing politics” in the West Philippine Sea.

De Lima warned that Duterte “might be throwing us out of the pan and into the fire.”

She pointed out that “so much at stake here,” citing the “lives of Filipinos, their well-being, security and even our very sovereignty.”

She aired hopes that Duterte would avoid “sacrificing those interests as easily as he sacrifices the lives of the people who are being killed on a daily basis because of his so-called war on drugs.”

De Lima asserted that foreign relations and diplomacy should not be turned “into a grudge match, where the Filipinos’ welfare is just a pawn for him to sacrifice.”

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/senators-vow-to-vote-down-duterte-plan-to-abrogate-vfa/