LOVFA Convenes At Senate Next Week - Legarda

The Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement (LOVFA) will convene on November 23, 2010 at 10 am at the Pecson Room of the Senate.

Senator Loren Legarda, Co-Chair of the Senate panel, said the LOVFA has already gathered inputs from different sectors as a prelude to the series of public hearings that it has calendared, aimed at formulating a report to Congress on the implementation of the Visiting Forces Agreement.

"Some of the issues raised include the guidelines on the custody of US military personnel who commit an actionable offense in the Philippines, and the silence of the VFA both on how long the 'visiting' forces may stay in our country and what activities they may do while they are here," Legarda explained.

The members of the Presidential Oversight Commission on the VFA (VFACOM), led by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr. (chair), DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo (vice chair), DND Secretary Voltaire Gazmin (vice chair), DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima (member), DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman (member) and VFACOM Executive Director Edilberto Adan, have been invited to present a report to the members on the progress of the VFA in the country.

"Eleven years after 1999 when a divided Senate concurred in the ratification of this agreement, there is now a clamor from members of Congress, non-government organizations, and even the Executive to review or even terminate the same. This review of the VFA is in order," Legarda concluded.