SC junks plea to renegotiate VFA

From GMANews (Mar 5): SC junks plea to renegotiate VFA

The Supreme Court has dismissed the request of University of the Philippines professor Harry Roque Jr. to compel the government to renegotiate the terms of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) it entered with the United States.

SC public information chief Theodore Te told reporters Tuesday that the high tribunal, sitting in full court, denied "for lack of merit" Roque's motion for execution, which Roque filed last February 12 at the wake of the grounding of the USS Guardian minesweeper in the world-famous Tubbataha Reef.

"The SC stated the petitioner should file the motion with the court of Origin," Te said, quoting from the unsigned resolution.

The VFA governs the conduct of visiting US personnel conducting military exercises in the Philippines.

Sought for comment, Roque said: "We are not party in the regional trial court. [Besides] Salonga filed original petition with the Supreme Court."

He was referring to a case filed by a civil society group led by former Senate President Jovito Salonga—filed at the height of the issue on the alleged rape of Filipino Suzette “Nicole” Nicolas by an American soldier—against former Foreign Affairs secretary Alberto Romulo and several others.

In that case, the victim's camp, as represented by Roque, questioned the constitutionality of the VFA that supposedly allowed rape suspect US serviceman Daniel Smith to go free with only a mild punishment.

In response, the high court sustained the constitutionality of the VFA and “partially granted” a petition by ordering the executive branch to “renegotiate” the controversial agreement.

“The Tubbataha incident makes it very clear why the VFA is not beneficial to the Philippines. It gives the Americans a pretext to ignore our national sovereignty and destroy our national patrimony,” Roque said.

The USS Guardian ran aground on Tubbataha Reef on January 17, where it remains as authorities continue to extricate it with the least damage to the reef's fragile ecosystem. Much of its potentially harmful content – including 15,000 gallons of fuel – have already been removed from the ship.

"As far as we know, the minesweeper had no business and was asked not to enter the national park. We theorized that the US Navy personnel on board may have wanted to engage in scuba diving in the park. That makes their grounding there a “non-service related” event. The Captain and the men of the minesweeper should have been criminally prosecuted before our local courts," said Roque.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/297762/news/nation/sc-junks-plea-to-renegotiate-vfa