Senator Panfilo Lacson on Sunday has asked the senators contemplating on filing a petition before the Supreme Court to clarify the role of the Senate regarding the cancellation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.
Even though the senators have not yet finalize the plan for a petition, Lacson said there were talks in the Senate to file the petition before the Supreme Court to set the record straight regarding the Senate’s role in the termination of bilateral treaties.
Lacson believes it would be much better that this issue be clarified to put an end to all speculations.
“Once it (Supreme Court decision) becomes a part of jurisprudence, this means that the executive branch, the legislative branch or Senado particularly, would already know,” he said.
“Under the 1987 Constitution, it was only during the ratification of a treaty that Senate action is needed,” he said in an interview over DZBB.
Lacson said the Supreme Court ruling for the petition against International Criminal Court (ICC) withdrawal may be applied to the possible petition on the VFA depending on the language to be used by the High Court.
Lacson said the Supreme Court’s clarification on the matter will allow senators to know the way forward on future instances of termination of a treaty.
“If we have treaties to ratify, more or less, we can foresee our role if our government through the President will unilaterally abrogate,” said Lacson.
He also emphasized it would be “premature” for his colleagues not to participate in the discussions on the Senate’s role in the VFA abrogation and just move on with President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision.
Senator Win Gatchalian on the otherhand, said the Philippines is a nation of resilient people.
Gatchalian strongly believes that Filipinos easily adapt to any situation.
With or without the VFA, he said the country can carry on, “bearing in mind that we didn’t have any kind of VFA before and yet we were able to run our military without any foreign intervention.”
Since the VFA is on the process of being abrogated, Gatchalian noted that this is a good opportunity to consider negotiations with other countries for a better and fairer VFA.
In this way, he said the Philippines can arrange for better provisions that will benefit the military and the country’s security.
“We must not forget the lessons that we have learned from our past negotiations with a foreign state,” said Gatchalian.
Most importantly, he said this is the best time to strengthen the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
“We need to develop independently our Armed Forces to prove that we can stand on our own,” said Gatchalian.
He said the Senate and the Lower House are ready to allocate bigger budget and funds to purchase more modern military equipment and supplies./Stacy Ang
