Palace: VFA under review but no talk on abrogation
08/14/2010 A day after Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago issued a statement saying that Congress, acting on its own, can unilaterally terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the United States and the Philippines, Malacañang yesterday said that an ad hoc review panel created by President Aquino is currently going over the VFA, but stressed that no discussions or decisions have been made regarding the issue of abrogating the accord. Santiago also called on Aquino to submit the treaty on the Rome Statute to the Senate for ratification, but this call is apparently being ignored, despite the fact that the Senate for years now, has been asking the Malacañang tenants to submit this Rome Statute to the Senate. The US government is not keen on having the statute ratified by the Philippine government. It was even made public by the then Bush administration that American aid could be cut off with the entry of the Philippines as a signatory to the Rome Statute. In a press briefing at the Palace, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Presidential Commission on VFA is conducting a review of the agreement even as a proposed joint resolution has been refiled in Congress asking Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to issue a notice of severance of the bilateral agreement to Washington. Lacierda said then senator now President Aquino, along with Santiago, was a signatory to the joint resolution calling for the VFA review..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100814hed5.html |
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