{"id":243024,"date":"2020-01-24T01:38:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T06:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243024"},"modified":"2020-01-24T01:38:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T06:38:13","slug":"duterte-rejects-trumps-invite-wants-vfa-scrapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/24\/duterte-rejects-trumps-invite-wants-vfa-scrapped\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte rejects Trump\u2019s invite; wants VFA scrapped"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech after leading the awarding ceremony for the 2019 Model Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Family of the Year Award (MOFYA) at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on November 28, 2019. TOTO LOZANO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected United States (US) President Donald Trump\u2019s invitation to attend the Southeast Asian leaders\u2019 summit in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 4, Malaca\u00f1ang announced on Friday.<\/p>\n

The cancellation of Senator Ronald \u201cBato\u201d dela Rosa\u2019s US visa prompted the President to refuse to fly to Washington this coming March, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo told Palace reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he said is he\u2019s not going,\u201d the Palace official said in a chance interview.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The President rejected the invitation due to) many reasons which I\u2019ve already stated earlier and the other reason was the cancellation of Senator Bato\u2019s visa. That added to the other factors,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

This developed a day after Panelo said Duterte was \u201cpondering over\u201d Trump\u2019s invitation to attend a summit between the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Panelo on Thursday said the President was likely possible to visit the US since the invitation was meant to bolster ties between the Asean and the US.<\/p>\n

But in his latest interview, Panelo said Duterte changed his mind, as he was piqued by the \u201cdemand\u201d of the US Senate to release Senator Leila de Lima.<\/p>\n

The Palace official said the Chief Executive would not allow American lawmakers to \u201cbully\u201d the Philippine government.<\/p>\n

\u201cSyempre ayaw niya<\/em>\u00a0(Of course, he doesn\u2019t want it). For one, as we said earlier, the demand of the US senators to release Ms. de Lima is an intrusion into our sovereign rights as a state because they cannot dictate on us or bully us into releasing a citizen of this country who is lawfully detained,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo was referring to the move of US Senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy to introduce an amendment to the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Section of the US budget program.<\/p>\n

A provision of the US 2020 budget earlier signed by Trump, titled \u201cProhibition of Entry,\u201d gives US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo the authority to prevent Philippine officials involved in de Lima\u2019s detention from entering the United States.<\/p>\n

De Lima has been detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City since February 2017 following her alleged role in the rampant narcotics trade inside the national penitentiary during his stint as Justice secretary.<\/p>\n

VFA termination being processed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, said the President has ordered the \u201cVisiting Forces Agreement (VFA) committee\u201d to \u201cstart the process of terminating\u201d the pact between US and Philippine troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cTinanong ko siya kagabi<\/em>\u00a0(I asked the President last night), \u2018When will the process start?\u2019 (He said), \u2018Tonight,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will leave it to Secretary Locsin. The process of starting (revocation of VFA) it has commenced,\u201d the Palace official added.<\/p>\n

The VFA committee is chaired by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and vice-chaired by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.<\/p>\n

Following the rift between the Duterte government and American senators, the President on Thursday warned that he would terminate the VFA with the US, unless Washington \u201ccorrects\u201d the cancellation of dela Rosa\u2019s visa in one month.<\/p>\n

The President made the threat in a speech delivered in San Isidro, Leyte, a day after dela Rosa announced that the US canceled his visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnya karon si Bato di nila paadtuon sa<\/em>\u00a0America. (Now they won\u2019t let Bato go to America) That\u2019s\u2026 I\u2019m warning you. This is the first time.\u00a0\u2018Pag hindi ninyo ginawa ang<\/em>\u00a0correction\u00a0diyan<\/em>\u00a0(If you do not make any correction), one, I will terminate the Bases Visiting Forces Agreement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m giving notice and they begin to count. I\u2019m giving government and the American government one month from now,\u00a0mag-istorya mi, pahawaon nako sila sa ilang<\/em>\u00a0Visiting Forces Agreement (for us to talk. I will terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement),\u201d Duterte added.<\/p>\n

Manila and Washington signed in 1998 the VFA, which provides for the treatment of American and Filipino troops when they are in the US or the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, US forces are not subject to passport and visa regulations when entering and leaving the Philippines. Their permits and licenses are also deemed valid in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

The US also has jurisdiction over its military personnel when they commit crimes in the Philippines, unless these are punishable in Manila.<\/p>\n

The VFA can be terminated by writing to the other party about their desire to scrap the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected United States (US) President Donald Trump\u2019s invitation to attend the Southeast Asian leaders\u2019 summit …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":238714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243026,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243024\/revisions\/243026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}