Maintaining that Senate concurrence is needed in any treaty or international agreement, former and incumbent Senators on Thursday blamed the “serious constitutional defect” that allowed the unilateral revocation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.
At the start of the Senate foreign relations committee hearing, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and former Senators Franciso “Kit” Tatad and Rodolfo Baizon acknowledged that Constitution was silent on treaty withdrawal.
Drilon said the issue here is the participation of the Senate in the abrogation and whether or not President Rodrigo Duterte has a general blanket authority to terminate the treaty.
“Our own submission, the power is not unilateral, this should be shared by the Senate,” Drilon told the committee chaired by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.
Citing the climate change agreement, Drilon has asserted that any withdrawal should have the concurrence of the Senate.
“It is true that treaty-withdrawal power is not in the Constitution. It is only treaty-making,” Drilon said.
However, he related that the legal scholars in the United States have put forward that theory that we should apply the mirror principle.
He explained that the principle simply says that the degree of congressional participation constitutionally required to exit any particular agreement should mirror the degree of congressional participation that is required to enter into an agreement in the first place.
In other words, Drilon said the process of withdrawal should mirror the same process in accession to the treaty.
“That is why it mirrors the procedure,” Drilon also said.
Tatad emphasized that the absence of a specific provision in the Constitution on treaty withdrawal was a “serious constitutional lapse.”
“The Constitution is silent on this. Whether this was a plain oversight or a deliberate act on the part of the framers of the Constitution, we have a serious constitutional lapse, which we must correct,” he said.
Although the “surest” way to correct this defect is to amend the Constitution, he however admitted there is no time for that.
“We don’t have the luxury of time for that. The best we can do now is to ask the Supreme Court to help cure this constitutional defect,” he said.
He also insisted that since the President cannot have a valid treaty without the Senate, he should not also be able to abrogate it without the same concurrence by the upper chamber.
Biazon said it is unfortunate our Constitution is silent on the issue of termination of any treaty. He agreed that the only way to resolve the question is through the Supreme Court.
“And so, therefore, there will be a second case to be filed before the SC questioning the unilateral exercise of the power to terminate treaties,” he said.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III earlier said he and Senators Drilon, Panfilo Lacson and Richard Gordon, Biazon, and Tatad are planning to file apetition at the high court.
President Rodrigo Duterte unilaterally terminated last Feruary 11 the VFAafter the US revoked the visa of his close ally, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa./ Stacy Ang
