{"id":243135,"date":"2020-01-26T08:49:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-26T13:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243135"},"modified":"2020-01-26T08:49:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T13:49:37","slug":"vfa-termination-wont-affect-ph-security-deals-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/26\/vfa-termination-wont-affect-ph-security-deals-with-us\/","title":{"rendered":"VFA termination won\u2019t affect PH security deals with US"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said terminating the VFA is not tantamount to abandoning the Philippines\u2019 defense and security cooperation with the US. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s plan to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States would not have an adverse impact on other existing agreements aimed at boosting military alliance between Manila and Washington, Malaca\u00f1ang clarified on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said terminating the VFA is not tantamount to abandoning the Philippines\u2019 defense and security cooperation with the US.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Yung<\/em>\u00a0VFA\u00a0lang naman ang mate-<\/em>terminate (It\u2019s just the VFA that will be terminated). So there is nothing to speculate about alliance natin with the (United) States. Ganoon pa rin. Wala namang mababago (It stays the same. Nothing will change),\u201d Panelo said in an interview with dzIQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cNandoon pa rin. Hindi naman mababago yun. \u2018Yung<\/em>\u00a0VFA\u00a0lang naman ang pinag-uusapan<\/em>\u00a0(The other agreements still exist. Nothing will change. We\u2019re just talking about the VFA),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Apart from VFA, the Philippines has other existing pacts with the US, which include the 1947 Military Assistance Agreement, the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), and the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).<\/p>\n

The Military Assistance Agreement created the joint US Military Assistance Group to advise and train the Armed Forces of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the 1951 MDT seeks to boost the defense and security cooperation between Manila and Washington, while the 2014 EDCA aims to boost military ties in maritime security and domain.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Duterte threatened to terminate the VFA between the Philippines and the US within one month, in case Washington fails to \u201ccorrect\u201d the cancellation of Senator Ronal dela Rosa\u2019s US visa.<\/p>\n

The VFA, signed by Manila and Washington on Feb. 10, 1998, gives US forces the privilege to enter the Philippines sans passport and visa restrictions, as well as to use their permits and licenses in the host country.<\/p>\n

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

The Philippines can revoke the VFA by notifying the US of its intent to terminate the agreement.<\/p>\n

More beneficial to US than to PH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo defended Duterte\u2019s planned termination of the VFA, as he stressed that the agreement was more advantageous to the US than to the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege granted to a military personnel of the US. More on them than to us,\u201d he said. \u201cKapag na<\/em>-terminate,\u00a0yung mga pribilehiyo ng mga Amerikanong<\/em>\u00a0military,\u00a0mawawala na<\/em>\u00a0(The termination of VFA will strip the personnel of American military of privilege).\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo reiterated that the process to terminate VFA has already started.<\/p>\n

He, however, could not say if there is a possibility that Duterte might change his mind about the revocation of VFA, in the event that Washington grants dela Rosa a US visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsa lang yun sa mga dahilan. So kung isa lang yun sa mga dahilan, hindi natin alam kung makakaapekto iyan sa mga desisyon niya<\/em>. (The cancellation of Dela Rosa\u2019s visa is just one of the reasons. So if that\u2019s just one of the reasons, we don\u2019t know if it can affect his decisions),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDahil ang desisyon niya<\/em>\u00a0(Duterte)\u00a0ay batay sa pag-labag sa ating kasarinlan. Kasama na rin \u2018yung hindi paggalang<\/em>\u00a0(His decision was based on the US\u2019 ignorance of the Philippines\u2019 sovereignty),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s relationship with Washington has apparently turned sour after US President Donald Trump signed the US 2020 budget, which includes a provision that authorizes US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prevent Philippine officials involved in Senator Leila de Lima\u2019s detention from entering the US.<\/p>\n

De Lima has been detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City since February 2017 due to her supposed role in the drug proliferation inside the national penitentiary during her stint as Justice secretary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s plan to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States would not have an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":187138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","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\/243135","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=243135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243136,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243135\/revisions\/243136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}