Scrapping VFA to affect PH global standing – Locsin
FOREIGN Affairs Secre tary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Thursday said the abrogation of the Visiting Forces of Agreement (VFA) might affect the Philippines’ international standing.
He added that without the VFA, the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the Philippines and the United States would become “just a piece of paper.”
The VFA, Locsin explained, “is the substance” that makes the defense treaty real.
“The termination of VFA will very likely dilute the US commitment to the MDT,” he said during the public hearing called by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations headed by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel 3rd.
“With the termination of the VFA, overall relations will be affected and various areas of bilateral and multilateral involving both countries’ cooperation may be put in jeopardy,” the DFA chief added.
“While the VFA is a bilateral agreement between the Philippines and the US, there may be repercussions in the way other US allies and/or US friendly countries — except Russia, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Singapore and Israel — perceive and or conduct relations with the Philippines should we decided that the agreement be terminated,” he said.
The Philippines’ credibility to deliver mutual military arrangements to maintain peace and stability in the region depends on its American alliance, he said.
Locsin, however, declined to categorically say if there is a need to terminate the VFA as ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“A vigorous review of the VFA is called for,” Locsin instead said.
He admitted that neither he nor Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana were consulted by the President.
But Locsin defended Duterte’s move to rescind the VFA.
“The President can fire off his desire to abrogate the VFA. The commander in chief should be able to express what he wants,” he told the senators.
Drilon said the “threatened termination of the VFA highlights and validates the need for the Senate to be part of foreign policy formulation.”
“It is part also of our check and balance. It is part of our exercise of that shared power insofar as foreign policy formulation is concerned.
Our failure to do so will weaken the Senate,” he added.
Sen. Mary Grace Poe said the country should withdraw from the bilateral agreement “with basis.”
“If we are to concur with any executive action, let it be ultimately for the interest of the people,” she added.
The Philippines, through the VFA, obtained from the US from 2016 to 2019 about $554.55 million in security assistance. This included $267.75 million in foreign military financing for the procurement of defense equipment.
Locsin admitted that the Philippine-US robust economic relations will be affected if the VFA is terminated. The US is the Philippines’ 3rd largest trading partner with US $18.17 billion registered in 2018 and its biggest export market.
The US is also the Philippines fourth largest import source and its third largest tourism market with over 1 million tourist arrivals in 2018.
Locsin warned that the termination of VFA will diminish the capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines “to degrade and deter terrorism and respond to terrorist emergencies.”
He added that the existing goodwill and friendly relations between the Philippines and the US will be “compromised.”