Send notice to US ending defence treaty: Duterte

Manolo B. Jara, Correspondent

President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte ordered the country’s top diplomat to send a formal notice to the US aimed at ending a defence agreement that allows, among others, the holding of annual “war games” between Filipino and American military forces, according to his spokesman.

Salvador Panelo reported that Duterte told Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to relay his order to Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin who earlier warned of adverse consequences to the country’s economy and national security  with the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US.

Panelo revealed  Duterte told him he would talk with US President Trump, thus: “President Duterte is also scheduled to talk with President Trump anytime. The agenda is not clear. It’s also not clear who initiated the impending talk.”

In his testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on the VFA on Thursday, Locsin urged a “vigorous review” of the treaty because its termination would not only affect the country’s economy and national security but also regional stability.

He did not elaborate but he was apparently referring to the unresolved territorial disputes between some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) particularly the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam and China in the South China Sea that has worsened regional tensions. However, Locsin defended Duterte’s stand for revocation, pointing out that as the sitting president and  the commander in chief of the military, as well as  the chief architect  he has the sole prerogative to do so.

Locsin likewise admitted that initially on orders of Duterte, he already prepared a formal notice of termination of the VFA to the US which he would send to Washington solely on the president’s orders.

“He (Duterte) has the constitutional power and authnority,” Locsin pointed out, “to abrogate any treaty for any reason especially an insult to our sovereignty.”

Aside from  the war games, the VFA also allows American military forces to train and advise their Filipino counterparts in disaster response and anti-terrorist operation like the campaign against the Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Mindanao.

But the treaty, which the Senate ratified in 1999, bans US soldiers from participating in actual combat.

Recently, Duterte ordered the treaty’s abrogation apparently in retaliation  to Washington’s decision to cancel the visa of freshmen Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a close ally and former chief of the Philippine National Police which spearheaded the government bloody and violent war on illegal drugs.