{"id":243430,"date":"2020-01-29T20:04:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T01:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243430"},"modified":"2020-01-29T20:04:56","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T01:04:56","slug":"vfa-review-may-lead-to-amendments-in-treaty-pimentel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/29\/vfa-review-may-lead-to-amendments-in-treaty-pimentel\/","title":{"rendered":"VFA review ‘may lead to amendments’ in treaty: Pimentel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After the review is completed by his panel, Pimentel said a committee report will be submitted to the plenary for debates and discussion, after which a copy of would be furnished to Malaca\u00f1ang. (File Photo<\/a>: Senator Koko Pimentel\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Wednesday said the Senate review of the Philippines\u2019 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States is not meant to interfere with the actions of President Rodrigo Duterte but could lead to improvements in the treaty in case the Executive branch decides to continue the military accord.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman namin pinapakialaman<\/em>\u00a0(We are not interfering), we are just reviewing it.\u00a0Wala itong<\/em>\u00a0relation\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0visa\u00a0ni Bato<\/em>\u00a0(This has nothing to do with the visa of Senator Ronald dela Rosa),\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said the review, which is set for next week, would tackle the VFA\u2019s implementation, the protocols, the benefits it gave to the country, as well as the problems encountered and any ambiguities in the treaty, among others.<\/p>\n

After the review is completed by his panel, Pimentel said a committee report will be submitted to the plenary for debates and discussion, after which a copy of would be furnished to Malaca\u00f1ang.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be presented as the Senate\u2019s sentiment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pimentel admitted however that the review could also lead to the introduction of amendments to the VFA, with the end view of improving the military accord in case Malaca\u00f1ang decides not to terminate the treaty.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung kailangan mang i<\/em>-improve\u00a0yun, kung may<\/em>\u00a0ambiguities\u00a0at gusto nating ipagpatuloy ang<\/em>\u00a0VFA (If ever we need to improve it if there are ambiguities and we want to continue the VFA) so that means it\u2019s an amendment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the Senate report would then take the form of an \u201cadvise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvise\u00a0yan,<\/em>\u00a0so\u00a0bibigyan natin ng<\/em>\u00a0advice\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0Executive branch (It\u2019s an advice, so we will be giving advice to the Executive branch),\u201d Pimentel said.<\/p>\n

“So we should start the process of initiating the amendment… with the consent of the other party,” he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pimentel said the VFA review would also touch on the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the US, as well as the country\u2019s VFA with Australia.<\/p>\n

He said this due to a theory by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian that the VFA is closely intertwined with the MDT.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if we review the VFA, necessarily mare-review mo rin (we will also review the) MDT and EDCA, which is also an adjunct of the MDT,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen-ended\u00a0ito, hindi namin alam kung kailan kami hihinto basta<\/em>\u00a0(we do not know when we will stop, but) it\u2019s a review of the VFA,\u201d Pimentel said.<\/p>\n

Duterte last week said he would terminate the VFA after the US canceled the visa of dela Rosa.<\/p>\n

The VFA governs the conduct of US soldiers stationed in the Philippines while the MDT ensures that Washington and Manila will come to the aid of the other should one of the parties is under attack.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the EDCA allows the greater rotational presence of US troops in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Senator Aquilino Pimentel III on Wednesday said the Senate review of the Philippines\u2019 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":221393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","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\/243430","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=243430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243431,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243430\/revisions\/243431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}