{"id":243218,"date":"2020-01-28T01:10:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T06:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243218"},"modified":"2020-01-28T01:10:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T06:10:03","slug":"senate-cant-review-petition-vfa-abrogation-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/28\/senate-cant-review-petition-vfa-abrogation-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate can\u2019t review, petition VFA abrogation: lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
In an interview, Sotto said the Senate can only discuss the planned VFA abrogation either, in a caucus or a hearing, with the purpose of coming up with a unified statement. (File photo:<\/a> Senate of the Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday said the Senate cannot review or even petition President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s decision to scrap the government\u2019s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Sotto said the Senate can only discuss the planned VFA abrogation either, in a caucus or a hearing, with the purpose of coming up with a unified statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps\u00a0ang kailangan ay pag-usapan lang<\/em>\u00a0(we only need to talk about it), I am not proposing anything other than to talk about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng importante, mapag-usapan para yung mga<\/em>\u00a0perspective or opinion\u00a0ng mga iba’t ibang senador ay mapag-usapan namin tungkol dito<\/em>\u00a0(What is important is we hear the perspectives and opinions of the other senators during the discussion),\u201d Sotto added.<\/p>\n

He stressed though that any \u201cunified\u201d statement that will come out would have no bearing on the President\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will just be a statement. It will just be a sense of the Senate,\u201d Sotto said.<\/p>\n

Sotto also refused to give comment on Duterte\u2019s move to scrap the VFA because he wanted to \u201cretain\u201d the independence of the three co-equal branches of government.<\/p>\n

\u201dAs Senate President, I would rather not indulge into saying what is right or what is wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cBottom line, the buck stops with him, he is the President, that is his decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it would also be better for the US to review Duterte\u2019s perspective on his decision.<\/p>\n

Sotto said Duterte\u2019s abrupt decision to terminate the VFA could not just be blamed on the cancellation of Senator Ronald dela Rosa\u2019s US visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaaaring isa sa mga<\/em>\u00a0catalyst\u00a0lang yun pero hindi yun ang<\/em>\u00a0trigger,\u00a0maraming<\/em>\u00a0trigger (it could just be one of the catalysts, but it was not the only trigger, there were many triggers),\u201d he said, noting of the various accusations hurled by US senators against the Duterte administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiguro maganda rin na alamin muna ng<\/em>\u00a0United States,\u00a0ano ba talaga ang mga nasa likod ng<\/em>\u00a0issue\u00a0na ito, di ba? Baka sakaling doon pa lang, magkaroon ng<\/em>\u00a0dialogue,\u00a0para mapabuti ang usapan<\/em>\u00a0(Wouldn’t it be better if the US find out what really are the reasons behind the issue? Hopefully, from there we can already start a dialogue, and pave the way for better negotiation) thereafter,\u201d Sotto said.<\/p>\n

Senator Panfilo Lacson echoed Sotto\u2019s sentiments, saying the purpose of the planned review on the VFA\u2019s abrogation should be clarified first, lest the Senate could be seen as \u201cunnecessarily encroaching on the authority of the Executive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate interview, the veteran lawmaker pointed out that the role of the Senate is to \u201cratify, concur or reject\u201d a bilateral agreement, and nothing more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why I said that we may have to be clarified kasi baka ma-misinterpret ng executive branch kung ano ang purpose namin (because the Executive might misinterpret our purpose).\u00a0Bakit kami magre-<\/em>review\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0provisions\u00a0ng isang<\/em>\u00a0(Why will we review the provisions of a) treaty that the president has already decided?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala kami talagang magagawa e<\/em>\u00a0(We cannot really do anything),\u201d Lacson added.<\/p>\n

Like Sotto, Lacson said he will not also give any advice on Duterte\u2019s move to terminate the VFA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday said the Senate cannot review or even petition President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s decision …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":199258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jose-cielito-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243218","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243219,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243218\/revisions\/243219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}