MANILA – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will leave it to President Rodrigo Duterte on whether to abrogate for good the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.
Foreign secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said he would be discussing the matter with President Duterte noting that the government will be studying possible scenarios regarding the deal.
“We’ll look at the situation,” Locsin said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source. “I have great, profound respect for the wisdom of my President. I will discuss it with him, because the decision is always his.”
On June 1, the DFA suspended the pending termination of the two-decade military pact with the US, saying the move was done “in light of the political and other developments in the region.”
The suspension will last for six months until December and could extend for another half a year, according to Locsin.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, for his part, said President Duterte is in no rush to decide whether to push through with the abrogation between the two countries.
“That has an option of being further extended by another six months. So, my thinking is, perhaps the President will invoke the second six-month time to finally abrogate the VFA,” Roque said.
President Duterte has ordered the scrapping of the VFA earlier this year following the cancellation of Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa’s US visa, as well as criticisms of some US senators against his drug war.
The VFA, a military pact signed between the Philippines and the US in 1998, allows American troops who are participating in joint military deals to visit Manila sans passport and visa.
The VFA was supposed to be abrogated 180 days after the Philippines sent a formal notice of termination to the US on Feb. 11, but Manila notified Washington in June about Duterte’s decision to suspend the revocation./PN
