JPE to Noy: Be ready to cut US ties in VFA bid By Angie M. Rosales 11/24/2010

JPE to Noy: Be ready to cut US ties in VFA bid

By Angie M. Rosales 11/24/2010
The Aquino administration should be ready to put on the table its position on the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) that the country has with the United States if it insists on a review of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and it should be also prepared to discard the agreement or cut off relations with the US if needed, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday as he indicated that Aquino might be entering a complex problem with the planned review of the agreement.

“If you’re going to review the VFA as you are now suggesting, the question that must be answered first: What is our capability? Can we do it alone in this world if we’re going to cut off our relationship with the US? I say relationship because the VFA is simply an implementation of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT). Without the MDT, you do not have the VFA. We have to go back to the MDT. Are we ready to really discard the MDT?” the most senior member of the upper chamber commented before the bicameral panel.

The VFA, which provides for, among others, new defense technologies and joint military exercises with the US Armed Forces, is an extension of the MDT.

The MDT, a pact sealed 1951 dictated that both nations would support each other if either the Philippines or the US were to be attacked by an external party..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101124hed5.html