President Arroyo has agreed to abolish the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACOM) to give way to a similar body which will safeguard the country’s sovereignty amid the presence of United States troops in the country, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said yesterday.
In a Senate hearing on the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Romulo announced that the VFACOM phaseout was proposed to President Arroyo, to which she reportedly agreed for unknown reasons.
"There is a plan to abolish the VFACOM and the President has agreed to it," Romulo told senators during the budget hearing.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, reportedly confirmed the President’s approval of the proposal to abolish the VFACOM.
Miriam said the government should consider creating another body that will take up the VFACOM’s task of safeguarding Philippine sovereignty during times when US soldiers are present in the country.
Romulo said the move of Congress to deny the budget of the VFACOM was seen as a proposal to abolish it and that Mrs. Arroyo has agreed to the proposal.
Congress earlier threatened to give a R1 budget to the VFACOM due to the commission’s alleged failure to secure custody of four US soldiers recently accused of rape in the country.
VFACOM Executive Director Zosimo Jesus Paredes, meanwhile, answered allegations of some senators that his commission failed to uphold the country’s sovereignty in the government’s handling of the rape case against four US soldiers.
Paredes said his office was merely implementing the provisions of the VFA perceived as disadvantageous to the Philippines "by the very senators who ratified it."
"When that treaty was ratified in 1999, the senators should have already questioned its vague provisions on custody. Now, some of those senators are the same people who pushed for the recommendations of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA to abrogate the treaty," Paredes said.
|
