Duterte extended suspension of VFA termination for another 6 months —Locsin

President Rodrigo Duterte has extended for another six months the suspension of abrogation of a defense pact with the United States amid lingering tensions in the South China Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Wednesday.

Duterte's decision to extended the suspension of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Locsin said, will enable both sides "to find a more enhanced,  mutually beneficial, mutually agreeable, and more effective and lasting arrangement  on how to move forward  in our  mutual defense."

"The past four years have changed the South China Sea from one of uncertainty about great powers' intentions to one of predictability and resulting stability with regard to what can and cannot be done, what will and will not be acceptable with regard to the conduct of any protagonist in the South China Sea. Clarity and strength have never posed a risk. It is confusion and indecision that aggravate risk," Locsin said in a statement addressed to White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.

"A great deal of credit for the renewal of stability and security goes to deft diplomacy, unequivocal expressions of policy, sturdy postures of strength combined with unfailing tact, and pragmatic national security advice exhibited by both our governments in the same period." 

The VFA governs the treatment of US servicemen in military units and defense personnel who are in the Philippine territory for short periods for joint military exercises approved by both the Philippine and US governments.

It entered into force on May 27, 1999, eight years after the closure of US military bases in the Philippines in 1991. It was negotiated and signed during the time of President Fidel V. Ramos and ratified during President Joseph Estrada’s time.

Duterte ordered the abrogation of the VFA after the US, a long-time Philippine defense and treaty ally, revoked the visa of his close aide and former national police chief now senator, Ronald Dela Rosa.

US officials did not cite a specific reason why Dela Rosa's visa was cancelled, but many speculated it was due to his involvement in Duterte's violent war on drugs.

Manila sent an official letter of termination of the VFA to the US on Feb. 11, 2020. Nearly three months later, Locsin on June 1 sent a diplomatic note to the US Embassy in Manila to notify them of Duterte’s decision to put the termination on hold, citing “political and other developments in the region.”

The move was welcomed by Washington.

Manila's move to abrogate the accord raises questions on the direction of the 69-year treaty alliance of the Philippines and the US at a time when the country is grappling with the territorial conflict with China in the South China Sea, where the US Navy regularly conducts freedom of navigation patrols to ensure unfettered access to the resource-rich waters.

Over the years, the US military also assisted the Armed Forces of the Philippines in combating extremist groups by providing technical assistance and enemy surveillance to Filipino troops battling the militants.  —KBK, GMA News