Philippine-American relations and the VFA

THE Philippines finally served the United States a notice of termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which governs the annual joint exercises of Filipino and American troops in implementation of two nations’ Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and Enhanced Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (EMDCA).

The initial reaction of the Americans came from US Defense Secretary Mark Esper. “It’s unfortunate that they would make this move,” he said. “I think it is a move in the wrong direction – for the longstanding relationship we have had with the Philippines, for the its strategic location, the ties between our peoples, our countries.”

But Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra said: “We survived the termination of the 1947 RP-US Bases Agreement in 1992. There is no reason why we shall not survive the termination of a mere Visiting Forces Agreement.”

When the Philippines, after 43 years of American colonial rule and three years of Japanese occupation in World War II, achieved its independence in 1946, the US maintained a military presence in the country through the Bases Agreement of 1947.

It was opposed and resented by Filipino nationalists but it was accepted by the budding Philippine government, which was still dependent in so many ways on support from the US. It was a time when the US faced the Soviet Union in a “cold war” and Philippines accepted its role as a part of the US-led democratic world against rising Soviet communism.

But Filipino nationalists never let go of the view that the Bases Agreement was an imposition of the former colonial power, a derogation of Philippine sovereignty. Finally, in 1992, the Philippine Senate in a historic vote ended the Bases Agreement despite the appeals of other Philippine officials led by then President Corazon C. Aquino. For the first time since 1898, there would be no more US bases in the Philippines.

To take the place of the Bases Agreement, the US and the Philippines drew up a Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and an Enhanced Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (EMDCA), along with a Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) to govern the continued coming of US troops for joint exercises, with humanitarian activities such as schoolhouse repairs. This is the VFA which we are now terminating.

The VFA, along with the MDT and the EMDC, are the remnants of the colonial authority that the US began in 1898. That was when the US, having defeated Spain, was beginning to see itself on the world stage, despite much local opposition in the US itself, and so it decided in 1898 to reject the Philippine revolution led by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and the Philippine independence he proclaimed on June 12, 1898.

Recalling all these historical events may help us understand why President Duterte has decided to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement.