[asia-apec 1023] Junk Visiting Forces Agreement between US and Philippine governments

[BAYAN]

NEWS RELEASE
11 February 1999

Junk VFA groups slam agreement in Senate hearing

The ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) is sure to encounter
rough sailing in the Senate in the face of the political, security and
legal arguments presented by the Junk VFA Movement's member groups during
today's Senate hearing.

At the Senate hearing this morning, Bayan Deputy Secretary General Teodoro A.
Casiño presented Senators with a long list of prominent persons,
politicians, church and community leaders who had all signed the anti-VFA
petition of the broad Junk VFA Movement. He announced that the Junk VFA has
at present 16 regional chapters and 11 provincial chapters. 

"This is proof that the people, at least a significant number of their
leaders and organizations from a broad array of sectors, are opposed to the
VFA and are ready to go out and make their voices heard," said Casiño.

Also during the hearing, Junk VFA convenor Capt. Danilo Vizmanos (ret.)
said there was nothing in the VFA which binds the U.S. to support the
modernization of the military. "It is misleading and illusory for
government to claim so," he said.

Vizmanos also said that the Philippines cannot rely on the U.S. to defend
the country from external attacks or acts of aggression. "The U.S. acts
based on its own economic and political interests and not on our behalf,"
he said. "Besides, we have no enemies today and in the foreseeable future,"
he added.

Belying government reports of threats from China, Vizmanos said the entire
DND-AFP psy-war machinery has been working "... to create a well orchestrated 
scenario of  'aggression' by Chinese jingoists supposedly operating  from
Mischief Reef."

"Any staff officer of the Chinese People's Liberation Army who entertains
the idea of developing Mischief Reef for military aggression against the
Philippines ought to have his head examined," said Vizmanos. The area, he
said, is not suitable as a military launching pad since it is a flat,
barren, fully exposed and shoal-infested reef with no natural barriers
against the elements.  

National security, he argued, means much more than a modernized armed
forces and upgrading of combat readiness through joint military exercises.
He put forward the concept of a "people-oriented" defense strategy which
emphasizes the involvement of the entire nation.  

Lawyer Marichu Lambino of the Public Interest Law Center said that the VFA
gives U.S. visiting troops infinite access to any part of the country. "The
Agreement practically allows anywhere from one soldier to a million to
enter the Philippines and gain access to any part of the country," she said.

More fundamentally, she said, the VFA was constitutionally infirm on
several grounds:

· Art. II,  Sections 2 and 7 renouncing war as an instrument of national
policy and the pursuance of an independent foreign policy, and; Sec. 8
banning the entry of nuclear weapons in the country.
 
· Art. XVIII, Sec. 25 which expressly lays down four requirements for
foreign military troops, facilities, or bases to be allowed in the
Philippines --  (1) only under a treaty, (2) duly ratified by the Senate
and, ( 3) should Congress require, ratified in a national referendum, and
(4) recognized as a treaty by the other contracting state.
 
· Art. VI, Sec. 28 prohibiting tax exemptions without the concurrence of a
majority of all members of Congress.

"Since the U.S. government does not consider the VFA a treaty but a mere
executive agreement, as far as the Philippines is concerned, the VFA is
constitutionally infirm," said Lambino.

She criticized Article 8 of the VFA which exempts U.S. armed forces from
paying Philippine duties, taxes and other similar charges when importing or
acquiring property, equipment, supplies and others. "The power to tax or
make exemptions is inherently legislative and non-delegable unless the
Constitution allows it," said Lambino. "The VFA's tax-exempt  provision,
therefore, cannot be valid unless all members of both houses of Congress
voting jointly approves it."

She also drew attention to Article VI of the VFA where both governments
"waive any and all claims... for damage, loss and destruction of each
other's property or for death and injury."

"This is obviously in the nature of a quitclaim," said Lambino. "It is not
clear whether this quitclaim is only for the government or whether the
government is quitting-claim for and on behalf of any and all Philippine
personnel who may be injured or killed. In other words, is this a waiver on
behalf of  Filipinos who may be injured or killed?" she added.#