{"id":246527,"date":"2020-02-29T03:12:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T08:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246527"},"modified":"2020-02-29T03:12:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T08:12:27","slug":"all-cabinet-execs-back-dutertes-vfa-abrogation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/29\/all-cabinet-execs-back-dutertes-vfa-abrogation\/","title":{"rendered":"All Cabinet execs back Duterte\u2019s VFA abrogation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte presides over the 45th Cabinet Meeting at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on January 6, 2020. REY BANIQUET\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 All members of the Cabinet have expressed support to President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s termination of the Philippines\u2019 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States (US), Malaca\u00f1ang said on Friday.<\/div>\n
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Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement to dispute the claim of Senator Panfilo Lacson that Duterte\u2019s revocation of VFA was not fully backed by all Cabinet members.<\/div>\n
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\u201cAll members of the Cabinet support PRRD\u2019s foreign policy,\u201d Panelo said.<\/div>\n
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Lacson on Thursday claimed that several Cabinet officials have apprehensions and reservations about Duterte\u2019s move to scrap the 1998 military deal between Manila and Washington.<\/div>\n
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He added that some of Duterte\u2019s Cabinet have also raised worry about the possible repercussions of the Chief Executive\u2019s abrogation of the VFA.<\/div>\n
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In a television interview, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Lacson\u2019s statement was mere \u201cspeculation.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Nograles said when Duterte makes a decision or gives a directive, the entire Cabinet is \u201cbehind him.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cLet me assure, everybody, that when the President makes a decision, all, the entire Cabinet will support him there. And that includes VFA,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
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Nograles also reiterated Duterte\u2019s stance that scrapping VFA was meant to pursue his administration\u2019s independent foreign policy.<\/div>\n
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\u201cBasically, that\u2019s the message. I mean, consistent naman si Pangulo diyan eh (the President is consistent there). We will pursue an independent foreign policy where we are friends to everyone and enemies to none. And I think when the President gave that statement, I think all he\u2019s saying is that hindi tayo pwede mag side sa kahit sino (we will not side with anyone from other countries),\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
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The VFA, signed in February 1998, allows the entry of US troops sans passport and visa regulations so they can participate in joint military drills in the Philippines.<\/div>\n
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Duterte first threatened to rescind VFA following the cancelation of US visa of his ally, former police chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa.<\/div>\n
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He later decided to end the military pact, prompting the Department of Foreign Affairs to send a formal termination notice to the US government on February 11.<\/div>\n
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The VFA expires 180 days after the receipt of the notice of termination.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 All members of the Cabinet have expressed support to President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s termination of the Philippines\u2019 Visiting Forces Agreement …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":241579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246527","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\/246527","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=246527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246531,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246527\/revisions\/246531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}