Duterte’s remarks on US military pact ‘embarrassing’

MANILA: Vice President Leni Robredo and a senior lawmaker ganged up on President Duterte saying his statement that the US should “pay” for the extension of a military agreement with the Philippines sounded like an “extortion.”

In her weekly radio programme on Sunday, Robredo also described as “embarrassing” Duterte’s controversial statement that the US should pay for the extension of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that allowed the conduct of annual military exercises or “war games” between Filipino and American military forces.

“For me, it’s embarrassing. It looks like we’re extorting money from them. If we do not want to retain the VFA, state the proper reasons. Let us show them why it will not be good for us. We should not put money as the prime consideration,” Robredo said in Filipino.

The VFA also allows the rotational presence of American military forces in the Philippines including the assignment of US experts to advise their Filipino counterparts in their campaign against Mindanao terrorist groups who pledged allegiance tot hedae sh extremists in the Middle East like the Abu Sayyaf.

In a separate statement, administration Senator Panfilo Lacson posted a tweet in a leter format addressing “Sam,” the US symbol to clarify the Duterte statement as he pointed out: “Dear Sam... just to clarify, please be informed that we are not a nation of extortionists; and more so we are not greedy. Err...not all.”

But later, Lacson, the chairman of the Senate Commitee on National Defence, revealed he took down the tweet ater giving it a thought that the president aimed to get a fair shake from the agreement. But he insisted that Duterte “could have said it in a more diplomatic way.”

Malacanang Palace has yet to react to the statements of Robredo and Lacson that came ater Duterte said that if the US wants to keep the VFA, it will “have to pay” because the country faces grave risks should hostilities break out between the US and China. Duterte revealed his stand in a speech on Friday at the former giant US military airbase at Clark in Pampanga province in Central Luzon where he inspected the newly acquired aircrat of the Philippine Air Force.