Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has signed the notice of termination of the Philippines’ Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, a move triggered by the visa cancellation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s close ally.
Locsin made the confirmation on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, adding that the US government has already received the notice.
“The Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the United States has received the notice of termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement,” Locsin said.
Under the accord, the VFA “shall remain in force until the expiration of 180 days from the date on which either party gives the other party notice in writing that it desires to terminate the agreement.”
Manila’s move to abrogate the accord raises questions about the trajectory of the 69-year treaty alliance of the Philippines and the US at a time when the country grapples with the territorial conflict with China in the South China Sea.
RELATED STORY: PH formally terminates Visiting Forces Agreement with the US
Over the years, US special forces have 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.
The US military has also provided aid to the Philippines during calamities and natural disasters.
Duterte, who has often criticized US policies while praising China and Russia, has threatened in the past to evict American forces in the Philippines, but robust relations of the two treaty allies have continued.
He ordered the abrogation of the defense pact, which allows American soldiers to regularly train with their Filipino counterparts in the country, after the US revoked the visa of his close aide and former 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 because of his involvement in Duterte’s violent war on drugs.
Duterte’s drug war, which killed thousands of suspects, has been criticized by the US, United Nations, European Union, human rights groups and other countries.
There is also a US law that bans foreign government officials involved in human rights violations and corruption from entering America.
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.
Clarke Cooper, Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs at the State Department, said Philippines-US defense cooperation will be put “at risk” without a VFA.
“All the freedom of navigation operations, all the exercises, all the joint training, having US military personnel in port, on the ground, on the flight line, does require that we have a mechanism that allows that, and that’s why the VFA is so important,” Cooper told a telephone briefing with journalists on Monday.
“At any given time, if one just totals up port calls and joint exercises and bilateral engagements, it is – the number is over 300. And the Visiting Forces Agreement provides a framework that engenders us to do those activities. Absent that agreement, we do put at risk those activities that the different defenses, the different services in the Philippines very much value.”
Cooper said a Bilateral Strategic Dialogue with the United States and the Philippines will be held sometime in March and that “certainly the Visiting Forces Agreement would be part of that dialogue.”
“So I imagine if one was sitting in Manila, that regardless if they’re in ministerial capacity or if they’re actually in an operational service capacity, they do not want to see any of these engagements or exercises either be reduced or disappear,” Cooper said.
