Senate to review RP-US 'Visiting Forces Agreement'

The Senate will be reviewing the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States, said Senator Loren Legarda, head of the foreign relations committee. "Magsasagawa tayo ng hearing tungkol diyan review ng VFA. Maraming katanungan na dapat sagutin ng VFA (We will conduct a hearing to review the VFA. We have many questions regarding the VFA)," Legarda told reporters in an interview on Wednesday. Through the hearing, the senator said she wants to determine whether the Philippines benefitted from the VFA. "Sila ba ay nakakatulong sa modernisasyon? Protektado ba ang mga kababayan natin sa mga lugar na bibibista (Did it help with the country's modernization? Are our fellow Filipinos in places occupied by the US military protected)," she said. She said that they also plan to hear the joint resolution filed by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago 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 never ratified the agreement, which the Philippine Senate ratified in 1999. Earlier, Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Malacañang is leaving it up to the Department of Foreign Affairs and to "legal experts" the decision on whether Congress indeed has the power to abrogate the VFA. Santiago earlier 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 in March this year that the VFA was constitutional. - VVP, GMANews.TV