Duterte decides to keep defence accord with US
MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte decided to keep the Philippines’ Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US to uphold the country’s interests while defining its ties with the United States as “between sovereign allies,” Malacanang Palace said on Friday.
Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, revealed the decision of Duterte who met visiting US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Palace on Thursday night. Austin was the first cabinet official of US President Joe Biden to visit the Philippines and two other Southeast Asian nations - Vietnam and Singapore.
“The president’s decision was based,” Roque pointed out, “on upholding the Philippines strategic core interests, the clear definition of the Philippine-us alliance as between sovereign equals and clarify the obligations and commitments under the MDT (Mutual Defense Treaty).”
Earlier, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who accompanied Austin to his meeting with Duterte, broke the news about the president’s decision as he exclaimed, “The VFA is in full force again. There is no leter of termination and we are back on track.”
For his part, Austin welcomed the Duterte decision which he described as “vital to the security, stabiity and prosperity” to the region where tension remains over China’s unabated militarisation of disputed territories in the South
China with the Philippines and other countries.
“A strong and resilient Us-philippines alliance will remain vital to the security, stability and prosperity of the Indo-pacific,” Austin said. “The fully restored VFA will help us achieve these goals together.”
The VFA, signed with the US during the time of the late president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, allows US military forces the use of Phiilippine military air bases and naval facilties as well as conduct annual “war games” with their Filipino counterparts.
But the agreement made clear that the US could not introduce nuclear weapons in any of the Philippine military bases as mandated by the Philippine Constitution. Nevertheless, it also allows American military experts to advice and train their Filipino counterparts in anti-terrorism operations against the Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf and other militant groups in Mindanao.
Duterte ordered the suspension of the VFA in February 2020 following the complaint of freshman Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, a close ally, that Washington cancelled his visa to the US.
Dela Rosa suspected the cancellation arose from his role as the former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Duterte’s bloody and violent war on illegal drugs amid charges of alleged rampant human rights violations.