President Arroyo finally received a post-inauguration phone call from US President Barack Obama. Among other things, they reaffirmed the partnership between the two countries. Along that line, according to Malacañang, Obama raised the importance of the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Mutual Defense Treaty on which the VFA is anchored.
That prompted a Malacañang official yesterday to caution senators on their reported plan to review the VFA amid the controversy over custody of US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith. The US embassy, where Smith is detained pending his appeal of his conviction for raping a Filipina, is still waiting for word from legal experts in Washington. The experts are studying an order handed down by the Supreme Court for Smith’s transfer to a Philippine detention facility.
VFA provisions tend to favor US custody of Smith pending final judgment, though there is a clause that the government could have invoked, “in cases of particular importance to the Philippines,” if it had even tried to retain custody of Smith. Critics have also pointed out that the VFA and a subsequent document called VFA II were lopsided, with Philippine troops not being accorded the same privileges in the US as their American counterparts in the Philippines.
In 2002 President Arroyo brought US troops back to the Philippines for the first time since their bases were shut down a decade earlier. She has since projected herself as a staunch supporter of Washington’s war on terror. The VFA was drawn up to cover the presence of US troops in this country, and the Americans have said they would not deploy their forces here without such an agreement. This is what is at stake in case the VFA is abrogated.
So far, the congressional clamor is only for an amendment and not the abrogation of the VFA. But any amendment cannot have a retroactive effect on Smith’s case. The merits of the Supreme Court order will have to be decided based on the existing VFA and VFA II. A country that cannot honor its own international commitments cannot expect respect from the rest of the world.
In case senators decide against abrogation, the VFA can still use a review to amend lopsided provisions and clarify certain gray areas especially in matters affecting national sovereignty. Even Obama should see nothing wrong with a review that seeks to foster a truly mutual defense treaty.