Nat'l interest to decide VFA's fate – Senator Legarda

Manila (25 November) -- Whether or not the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States of America (USA) must be retained or terminated will be determined by the weight of the advantages against the drawbacks of the treaty to the country and to the Filipino people, Senator Loren Legarda said.

Legarda, Co-Chair of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA (LOVFA), said many provocative issues and realistic assessments of the actual implementation of the VFA were raised during the panel's first hearing on the issue of reviewing the VFA.

"This hearing brought about other issues that we need to consider in reviewing the VFA. Aside from the issues regarding jurisdiction and custody, frequency and duration of the stay of the US Forces in the country, and the kind of activities being done, we must review the VFA in the light of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and assess it as well based on the prevailing security situation and the new geo-political landscape," Legarda said.

"Furthermore, we should not only consider the quantifiable benefits of the treaty, such as how many trainings were conducted, how many equipment were turned-over, or how much financial aid in dollars was given. We also have to look into its social and environmental impact, and the effects in our community and in the lives of our people," she added.

Regarding the issue on conducting a parallel review of the MDT, Legarda said it is a matter that the Senate has yet to discuss formally since the only resolution formally pending in the Senate is the review of the VFA.

"We are reviewing first the VFA, but the VFA does not exist in isolation, it came about because of the MDT. Although we are not in the path of reviewing the MDT per se, we can look back at the events that transpired then, which gave birth to the MDT, and compare it with the situation at present," the Senator explained.

"At the time the MDT was signed in 1951, it was the time of the Cold War, our foes were different then. Today, our enemies are poverty, pollution and environmental degradation, disasters, climate change, and many other economic and social crises that have arisen through the years. This will require a great amount of consensus and shared understanding of how these things may be confronted. But in the end, these debates on the pros and cons of these agreements would ultimately lead us to the number one thing we must always consider?the national interest," Legarda concluded. (PIA-MMIO)

Senator Angara: Reexamine Original Mutual Defense Treaty

In yesterday's hearing (November 24) of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement (LOCVFA) held in the Senate, Senator Edgardo J. Angara called on his colleagues to reexamine the Philippines' mutual defense alliances that could now be based on "outdated assumptions".

"We should discuss not just the issue of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) itself but the underlying defense security arrangement between the United States and the Philippines. The military bases agreement was concluded when our country was still practically a colony of the US and therefore, has many assumptions that may no longer exist," he explained.

According to Angara, vice-chair of the Senate Committee on foreign relations, the worldwide political dynamics has undergone a drastic change over the past decades. For instance, Russia--once treated as a pariah by the other nations because of their occupation of Georgia--has been formally invited by the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to take part in a mutual defense pact and joint military exercises much like the Balikatan.

Angara also cited the historic 50-year military pact signed by UK and France to form a special military force of 5000 troops, and agreeing to test their nuclear armaments jointly. This agreement between two countries, which has been enemies for centuries, was almost unthinkable just a couple of years ago.

"My point is, the whole security architecture of the world is changing rapidly, and unless we review the original defense pact between the US and the Philippines, we may suddenly realize that we are still bogged down as the least trained, least prepared and poorest equipped military in the region. I think that has been our lack in this mutual agreement deal. These new realities call for a re-examination of all our essential security alliances and arrangements," he asserted.

(Souce: http://senate.gov.ph)