Loveless in the time of VFA and nCoV

Valentine’s Day and President Rodrigo Duterte broke up with the United States over the VFA, or the Visiting Forces Agreement. “Walang tayo (There is no us),” he says.

“We’re fine with that,” US President Donald Trump replies. “We’ll save a lot of money.” Ouch.

And Bato, or Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, will still not get a visa to the US. Double ouch.

Activists have long called the VFA a scourge to our sovereignty and held many rallies and lobbying in Congress to have it scrapped.

They pointed out there are many valid reasons to terminate this military agreement like the following: a US serviceman sexually abusing Nicole, also known as the Subic rape case; another serviceman killing transgender Jennifer Laude in Olongapo, a Filipino staff mysteriously dying in a US camp in Marawi, a whistleblower from the Army saying US forces were spying and combat operations in Mindanao, farmers getting shot in Balikatan exercises and an elderly dying of a heart attack after seeing a helicopter landing on her farm.

These happened in the past 15 years and you can find these stories online in Mindanews and

Funny that Sen. Francis Tolentino suggested in a Senate hearing on this VFA termination that we can just ask the US forces to leave all their equipment behind before they leave

alternative news groups.

None of these cases made the government blink and review the agreement until Senator dela Rosa announced he was denied a US visa. The activists should have taken lessons from the Bible that the way to beat a Goliath is to use a little rock.

But are the activists happy? They say the termination of the VFA still needs 180 days for it to be cleared. So this is just like a break-up, there’s a cooling off moment and you’ll decide if you’re ready to move on.

Also, is the military happy? The USA has been their daddy -- source of firearms and used equipment. But that still didn’t get the Navy to fight the Chinese vessels that didn’t need any of that agreement to come in and wreck our resources and fisherfolk boats on the West Philippine Sea.

Funny that Sen. Francis Tolentino suggested in a Senate hearing on this VFA termination that we can just ask the US forces to leave all their equipment behind before they leave. I guess it’s hard to move on.

Everyone has American dreams, except for Duterte.

It’s really strange that there is love in the wrong places.

And so we have nCoV, or the novel coronavirus. It can also mean “No Cash on Valentine’s.” For farmers: “No Crops Or Vegetables.” Or “No to China or VFA.”

(The World Health Organization later renamed the disease Covid-19, or coronavirus disease 2019.)