Bicameral panel to oversee VFA activities
Congress would closely oversee and monitor the im-plementation of the Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), particularly on national security and defense matters, Senate President Blas Ople said yesterday.
The first joint military exercises under the VFA, dubbed as "Balikatan," are
scheduled to take place early next month at Subic, Clark and Fort Magsaysay in
Nueva Ecija, as well as at Sangley Point in Cavite and the Western Command in
Palawan.
Ople expressed confidence that Congress could start overseeing and monitoring the VFA implementation starting with "Balikatan," which will be participated in by about 2,000 US and Philippine soldiers.
Ople said a congressional oversight committee on the VFA will be created to undertake this. The Senate passed during the special session a joint resolution on the panel's creation.
"We will constitute the oversight committee as soon as the House passes its counterpart measure," he said. --
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