{"id":243547,"date":"2020-01-30T20:11:38","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T01:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=243547"},"modified":"2020-01-30T20:11:38","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T01:11:38","slug":"scrapping-vfa-to-boost-phs-foreign-policy-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/30\/scrapping-vfa-to-boost-phs-foreign-policy-justice-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrapping VFA to boost PH’s foreign policy, justice system"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In an aide-memoire addressed to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Salceda said the provisions in the VFA are \u201cnot essential\u201d for the purpose of guaranteeing the region\u2019s safety from terrorism, considering that allies exchange intelligence and military support all the time under less onerous conditions. (File Photo<\/a>: Joey Sarte Salceda\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Albay Rep. Joey Salceda on Thursday said the country\u2019s withdrawal from the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) would bolster the country\u2019s independent foreign policy and strengthen the justice system with a little economic and geopolitical cost.<\/p>\n

In an aide-memoire addressed to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Salceda said the provisions in the VFA are \u201cnot essential\u201d for the purpose of guaranteeing the region\u2019s safety from terrorism, considering that allies exchange intelligence and military support all the time under less onerous conditions.<\/p>\n

The treaty allows US forces to enter the Philippines without a passport and visa restrictions, as well as exempts US personnel from Philippine jurisdiction, so long as the crimes they commit are not \u201cof particular importance to the Philippines\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat motivates our irrational fear of total abandonment by the US is primarily sentimental. For decades, we have regarded the United States as a sentimental partner, even as it has set sovereignty-eroding conditions such as \u2018parity rights,\u2019 even for such basic gestures of friendship as reconstruction payments for the Second World War,\u201d Salceda said.<\/p>\n

He noted that the bilateral agreements–such as the Mutual Defense Treaty, Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, and the VFA\u2014meant that the Philippines must side with the US in their wars, allow them to use the country\u2019s bases, and still be unable to try their personnel for most crimes in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a toxic relationship. And while we have nothing against the American people, we cannot ignore the fact that their government has treated our country not as a partner but as an overseas possession, whose domestic policy falls within their sphere of influence,\u201d Salceda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may have been acceptable to this government\u2019s predecessors then. It can no longer be accepted by a country that has become aware of its own merits. We are among the fastest-growing economies in Asia, not to mention an investment destination that would almost certainly yield reasonable rates of return,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The economist-lawmaker said the trade and investment impact of scrapping the VFA will be close to nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not become less attractive an investment destination just because we are now for trying all crimes committed in our soil under our laws.,\u201d he said, citing that the Philippines is named the third most attractive investment destination in the world in 2019 by CEOWORLD Magazine.<\/p>\n

He argued that scrapping onerous and unfair geopolitical deals is a strong statement, as we open the country for good investment through policy reforms on foreign capital restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will treat all investors fairly, and we will not privilege one country over another should there be a commercial dispute between them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Salceda said it is price and quality, not political disagreement, that determines a country\u2019s decision to import Philippine goods.<\/p>\n

He noted that macroeconomic fundamentals and the certainty of profit, not military treaties, that determine an investor\u2019s decision to invest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove this, our most valuable trading relationships are with Asia. In terms of export markets, exports to the city-economies of Singapore and Hong Kong combined now exceed our exports to the United States. Our Asian partners want to buy more from us while demanding less of us that the United States does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 23, President Rodrigo Duterte announced his plan to scrap the VFA between the Philippines and the US within one month, unless Washington fails to \u201ccorrect\u201d the cancellation of Senator Ronald dela Rosa\u2019s US visa.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s latest decision came following an amendment to the US 2020 budget, which authorizes US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to bar Philippine government officials involved in Senator Leila de Lima\u2019s \u201cwrongful detention\u201d from entering the US.<\/p>\n

De Lima, who has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame in Quezon City since February 2017, supposedly had a key role in the drug proliferation inside the national penitentiary during her stint as Justice secretary.<\/p>\n

Apart from the amendment to the US budget, the American senators have also passed Senate Resolution 142, asking US President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Philippine government officials allegedly behind de Lima\u2019s detention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Albay Rep. Joey Salceda on Thursday said the country\u2019s withdrawal from the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) would bolster the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":89810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243547","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=243547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243548,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243547\/revisions\/243548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}