Drilon files resolution to assert Senate role in VFA’s fate

Minority Leader Franklin Drilon filed Wednesday a resolution asserting the role of the Senate in treaty termination or withdrawal amid the threat of President Rodrigo Duterte to terminate the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States.

?In filing Senate Resolution 305, Drilon said any termination or withdrawal of treaty and international agreement should only be valid and effective upon concurrence of the Senate.

He cited Article VII, Section 21 of the Constitution which states that “no treaty or international agreement shall be valid and effective unless concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the members of the Senate.”

He said the power to bind the Philippines by a treaty or international agreement is vested jointly by the Constitution in the President and the Senate.

“A treaty or international agreement ratified by the President and concurred in by the Senate becomes part of the law of the land and may not be undone without the shared power that put it into effect,” the resolution read.

Drilon also said that the sphere of foreign affairs is not within the exclusive powers of the President as held by the Supreme Court in Saguisag v. Executive Secretary (G.R. No. 212426, January 12, 2016).

“The principle of checks and balances, historical precedent and practice accepted as law in most jurisdictions, and the Constitution’s dictate for a shared treaty-making power require that a termination, withdrawal, abrogation or renunciation of a treaty or international agreement can only be done with the same authority that gave it effect – executive ratification with Senate concurrence,” he said in the resolution.

Drilon, along with 13 other senators, first filed a similar resolution in 2017 during the 17th Congress emphasizing that the Senate should have a say when a treaty or international agreements concurred in by the Senate is terminated or abrogated.

However, then neophyte Senator Manny Pacquiao blocked the passage of the resolution. —NB, GMA News