VILLAR: GAINS FROM VFA NOT ENOUGH JUSTIFICATION FOR ITS CONTINUATION Supports LOVFAs concurrence on the termination of VFA with the US

Senator Manny Villar, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, says that the benefits, quantifiable or unquantifiable, that the Philippine military are getting as a result of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) are not enough to justify its continuation.

The Congress panel that comprises the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA (LOVFA) yesterday passed in a hearing today the Concurrent Resolution filed by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago expressing the sense of the Congress that notice of termination should be served to pave the way for the renegotiation of the VFA.

As a member of LOVFA, I support the move for the scrapping of the VFA. It has so many lopsided provisions that should be renegotiated at the very least. We have only found out about these one-sided or biased provisions because of the Subic rape case, cites Villar.

Villar adds, Its about time that we show them that the welfare of our citizens is more important to us than any agreements or whatsoever. It seems that they are not even taking us seriously. It took them months to look into our request for custody of four American servicemen charged with raping a Filipina at the Subic Freeport, which they rejected anyway.

The Philippine government formally sought custody of the accused servicemen in November. They have not even accorded our government officials importance since they have delegated only their deputies and assistants to deal with our VFA concerns. The rape case in Subic that has invited the outrage of our people is, it seems, the least of their priorities, cites Villar.

Villar further cites, The millions of dollars that they extend to us courtesy of our VFA with them cannot justify the biased or lopsided provisions on it. We should enter agreements like VFAs as equals, thus they should be mutually beneficial or favorable.

On other senators suggestion to cancel the funds allocated under the budget of the Department of National Defense for Balikatan exercises and related to VFA, Villar says, We will definitely look even more closely to DND and other involved agencies in the light of this latest development.