{"id":247635,"date":"2020-03-10T02:03:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T06:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247635"},"modified":"2020-03-10T02:03:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T06:03:36","slug":"duterte-counting-the-days-us-troops-pack-up-and-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/10\/duterte-counting-the-days-us-troops-pack-up-and-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte counting the days US troops \u2018pack up and go\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and US President Donald Trump share a light moment prior to the bilateral meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on November 13, 2017. ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night said he is beginning to count the \u201c180 days\u201d until US troops \u201cpack up and go\u201d.<\/p>\n

Duterte made this remark refusing to change his decision to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the US even after some senators asked the Supreme Court to compel him to seek Senate concurrence in terminating the military pact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey cannot compel me. I refuse to be compelled. I have terminated it.\u00a0Tapos ang problema ko. Wala na akong problema diyan<\/em>\u00a0(My problems are over. I don\u2019t have any problems with it anymore),\u201d he said in a press briefing in Malaca\u00f1ang.<\/p>\n

He was firm in his decision to scrap the VFA but stressed that he had high respect for US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not reneging on the VFA and I am not going to America to discuss this with anybody though I respect highly of Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Monday, some senators filed a petition before the high court asking the tribunal to uphold the Senate’s authority in the withdrawal or termination of treaties and international agreements such as the VFA.<\/p>\n

In the petition, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate Minority Floor Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Panfilo Lacson, and Richard Gordon filed the 56-page petition asking the high court to declare that the withdrawal from or termination of a treaty previously concurred by the Senate should require the concurrence of two-thirds of its members for it to be valid and effective.<\/p>\n

It also asked the high court to issue an order referring the notice of withdrawal of international agreements to the Senate for its concurrence<\/p>\n

Late in January, Duterte ordered to start the process of termination of the VFA following the cancelation of the US visa of the retired national police chief and now Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who used to be one of the lead implementers of the government’s anti-drug campaign.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier warned the US government that he would scrap the agreement if the cancelation of the visa of dela Rosa is not rectified within a month.<\/p>\n

The Philippines sent a formal notice of termination of VFA to the US on February 11. The military pact is deemed revoked 180 days after the receipt of the termination notice.<\/p>\n

The VFA, signed by the Philippines and the US in 1998, is an executive agreement that stipulates how visiting American troops should be treated in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Aside from exempting US forces from passport and visa regulations, the agreement also states that their permits and licenses are also deemed valid in the Philippines. The same policy also applies to Filipino troops in US military installations.<\/p>\n

It also allows Washington DC to retain jurisdiction over US personnel accused of crimes committed in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Best deal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, urged Filipinos in the US to vote for Trump\u2019s re-election in the upcoming 2020 presidential elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if that was a political move by the senators to win the Filipino votes there, I\u2019m telling the Filipino now, you are getting the best of deal with Trump. Obama was a leftist,\u201d he said, stressing that he would not deny if he would be accused of \u201cinterfering\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the Filipinos, if you perchance eh\u00a0lumabas ito, bumoto kayo kay<\/em>\u00a0Trump (this comes out, vote for Trump). And they say that I am interfering, of course, I am interfering. Tell that to the Americans that Duterte is insisting on interfering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he was interfering because the US government, under the previous administration, had been criticizing his aggressive crackdown on illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

Last month, Malaca\u00f1ang denied that Duterte was campaigning for Trump when he praised the latter for being a \u201cgood” leader by respecting the Philippines\u2019 decision to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Duterte) is expressing his sentiment about it, not necessarily campaigning and he explained it,\u201d Panelo said in a briefing on Monday.<\/p>\n

Duterte explained that Trump\u2019s principle and \u201cjudicious remarks on the termination of the VFA\u201d made him deserving of another four-year term in the upcoming November US presidential elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabi ni Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(The President said), if I were in his shoes, I would be doing the same and I\u2019m sure he would have done the same\u00a0kung siya \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0(if he were) Filipino President\u00a0kaya<\/em>\u00a0that makes him a good president and he deserves to be reelected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night said he is beginning to count the \u201c180 days\u201d until US troops \u201cpack …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":131292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247635","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=247635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247636,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247635\/revisions\/247636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}