Aquino open to VFA review, spokesman says

President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III is open to reviewing the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a Palace spokesman said Friday, after a senior lawmaker asked Congress to terminate the controversial agreement. "The position of the president is he's open to review the Visiting Forces Agreement," said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda at a press briefing. Lacierda pointed out that there is an ongoing "internal review" of the VFA by the Presidential Commission on the VFA, which is headed by Undersecretary Edilberto Adan, a retired Army general. Aquino had said during the presidential campaign that he was in favor of review the controversial agreement, which allows American troops to visit the Philippines for military training but bars them from engaging in combat operations except in self-defense. Lacierda said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is also open to a review of the VFA, but added that "there is no discussion on the abrogation yet as far as the executive branch is concerned." Miriam's resolution On Thursday, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed a joint resolution asking both houses of Congress to terminate the VFA. In her resolution, Santiago noted that the US does not recognize the VFA as a treaty because its Congress has never ratified the agreement, which the Philippine Senate ratified in 1999. "It is within the powers of Congress to unilaterally terminate the VFA through a joint resolution. The executive's role is to give notice of termination to the United States, although the decision itself is one for Congress to make," she said. Lacierda said Malacañang is leaving it up to the DFA and to "legal experts" to decide whether Congress indeed has the power to abrogate the VFA. Santiago had also called for the abrogation of the VFA during the previous Congress, when she was chairperson of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA. The Supreme Court said last March that the VFA was constitutional. — RSJ/JV, GMANews.TV