An organization of lawyers has called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to immediately terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and “save the Philippines from humiliation and injustice.”
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
An organization of lawyers has called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to immediately terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and “save the Philippines from humiliation and injustice.”
The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) made this call on the heels of the Supreme Court’s Feb. 11 ruling that the agreement between Romulo and US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney, which made possible convicted rapist L/Cpl. Daniel Smith’s detention at the US Embassy in Manila, is not in accordance with the VFA.
The NUPL was joined by House Deputy Minority Leader Satur Ocampo and Rep. Teddy Casiño, both Bayan Muna (People First) representatives, in denouncing the Supreme Court ruling for upholding the supposed “constitutionality” of the VFA.
Passed by the Philippine Senate and signed by then-President Joseph Estrada in 1999, the VFA among other things grants extra-territorial and extra-judicial “rights” to US servicemen visiting the Philippines for “military exercises”. It was not, however, recognized by the US government as a treaty.
The justices who voted against Smith’s detention at the US Embassy while at the same time affirming the VFA as constitutional were Associate Justices Adolfo Azcuna, Leonardo Quisumbing, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Renato Corona, Dante Tinga, Minita Chico-Nazario, Presbitero Velasco, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, and Arturo Brion.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno and Associate Justice Antonio Carpio filed dissenting opinions declaring the VFA as unconstitutional. They were joined by Associate Justices Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez and Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Puno, who called the VFA a continuing “slur on our sovereignty”, argued that the VFA has not been ratified as a treaty by the United States and that its provisions are not fully enforceable under US law.
Carpio, meanwhile, argued that in the US Supreme Court ruling on Medellin v. Texas, even if a treaty is recognized as such by the US government, it is not enforceable in the US without legislation unless the treaty is self-executing.
Art. XVIII, Sec. 25 of the Constitution provides that:
After the expiration in 1991 of the Agreement between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of America concerning military bases, foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate and, when the Congress so requires, ratified by a majority of the votes cast by the people in a national referendum held for that purpose, and recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State.
Meanwhile, Associate Justices Antonio Eduardo Nachura and Diosdado Peralta inhibited themselves.
The Makati City Regional Trial Court, in early December 2006, convicted Smith – a participant in the Balikatan military exercises – of raping a Filipina in Subic, Zambales and ordered his confinement at the Makati City Jail pending his imprisonment at the National Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. However, on Dec. 29, 2006, he was purportedly transferred to a detention facility at the US Embassy in Manila under what is now known as the Romulo-Kenney Agreement.
