Lorenzana refutes Panelo on Duterte's order on VFA termination notice

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Saturday claimed President Rodrigo Duterte has not officially ordered the sending to the US of a notice of termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), contrary to an earlier announcement by Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo.

"This is fake news. Sec. Locsin has not [seen] the order yet," Lorenzana told reporters in a chat group, referring to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., who Panelo claimed had been instructed by the President to send the notice of termination.

Panelo, on Friday, announced that "President Duterte is instructing Executive Secretary [Salvador] Medialdea to tell Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin to send the notice of termination to the US government." 

No official order has been issued to the Department of Foreign Affairs as regards terminating the VFA, Defense chief Delfin Lorenzana says. @gmanews

— ????Anna Felicia (@annafelicia_) February 8, 2020

According to Lorenzana, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo’s remark that PRRD ordered Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to tell SFA Locsin to notify the US about VFA termination was “fake news.”

— ????Anna Felicia (@annafelicia_) February 8, 2020

Sought for comment, Panelo told GMA News Online there was no inconsistency in his and Lorenzana's statements.

"What SND [secretary of national defense] meant is ES has yet to receive the instruction. That is what ES also told me last night that he has not received the instruction yet from PRRD," said Panelo.

"I was quoting PRRD of what he told me. If he has not given the instruction yet to ES it does not mean the info I shared to media is untrue. It only means ES has not yet gotten the directive from PRRD," he added.

For his part, Medialdea confirmed that the instruction has yet to reach him. "As of date I have not received any instruction to relay any message to anyone," he said. — MDM, GMA News