MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has extended for six more months the suspension of the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States.
Foreign Affairs secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Wednesday said he was instructed by the President to convey his decision to White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
“My President, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, has instructed me to convey with the appropriate formality his decision to extend the suspension of the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement by yet another six months,” Locsin said.
“This is to enable us to find a more enhanced, mutually beneficial, mutually agreeable, and more effective and lasting arrangement on how to move forward in our mutual defense,” he added.
Earlier this year, Duterte ordered the abrogation of the VFA after the US revoked the visa of Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa, his close ally.
“The past four years have changed the South China Sea from one of uncertainty about great powers’ intentions to one of predictability and resulting stability with regard to what can and cannot be done, what will and will not be acceptable with regard to the conduct of any protagonist in the South China Sea. Clarity and strength have never posed a risk. It is confusion and indecision that aggravate risk,” Locsin said.
“A great deal of credit for the renewal of stability and security goes to deft diplomacy, unequivocal expressions of policy, sturdy postures of strength combined with unfailing tact, and pragmatic national security advice exhibited by both our governments in the same period,” he added.
The VFA governs the treatment of US servicemen in military units and defense personnel who are in the Philippine territory for short periods for joint military exercises approved by both the Philippine and US governments.
It entered into force on May 27, 1999, eight years after the closure of US military bases in the Philippines in 1991. It was negotiated and signed during the time of President Fidel V. Ramos and ratified during President Joseph Estrada’s time.
Over the years, the US military also assisted the Armed Forces of the Philippines in combating extremist groups by providing technical assistance and enemy surveillance to Filipino troops battling the militants./PN
