SC Asked to Declare VFA
Unconstitutional
BY
EMILY VITAL
Posted
Jan. 31, 2007,
5:23 p.m.
In the light of
supervening events involving convicted U.S. Marine Lance Cpl Daniel
Smith, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)
and its member organizations filed on Wednesday, January 31, a petition
before the Supreme Court (SC) to declare the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)
void and unconstitutional.
The petition for
certiorari and prohibition with GR No.17622 was filed by Bayan chair Dr.
Carol Araullo, Bayan Muna (People First) Representative Satur Ocampo,
Gabriela secretary general Emmie de Jesus and Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the
Philippines) deputy secretary
general Wilfredo Marbella.
Other petitioners
include the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement),
Public Interest Law Center and the League of Filipino Students.
Their counsels are
Neri Colmenares, Rachel Pastores, Pacifico Agabin, Victoria Avena and
Alnie Foja.
Araullo said, “In
1999, then SC Justice Reynato Puno’s lone voice voted to grant the
petition of Bayan. His lone, lonely voice then should be the Honorable
Court’s collective will now.”
In the Bayan vs.
Zamora decision, Puno described the VFA’s terms as ‘a mirage in a
desert of vague provisions’ and their antecedents as an ‘historical
aberration’ and ‘anomalous asymmetry’.
Ocampo said, “Now we
have an outstanding issue that gives flesh to our contention that this
agreement is null and void for it violates the `1987 Constitution.
Hopefully, the Supreme Court will join Makati Judge Benjamin Pozon in
upholding our national sovereignty against the onerous and unfair VFA.”
In their pleading
submitted to the high court, the petitioners argued that,
1)
The VFA usurps this Court’s rule-making power, particularly its
rules on arrest and disposition of, as well as custody and jurisdiction
over, an accused and a convict, before Philippine courts, in violation
of Sec. 5 (5), Art. VIII, Constitution and case law;
2)
The VFA allows unlimited entry of American troops for indefinite
duration to engage in any kind of activity anywhere in the Philippines
without need for prior consent by any Philippine authority, contrary to
constitutional proscription against the unfettered stationing of foreign
troops within the country as well as the absolute prohibition on the
presence of nuclear weapons here;
3)
The VFA is a product of a short-circuited procedure by the United
States government when it did not recognize it as a treaty, in defiance
of Sec. 25, Article XVIII, Constitution.
Araullo added, “The
arrogance of the US government must stop and all those who have colluded
with the blatant violation of our judicial independence, national
sovereignty and dignity, most especially the chief executive, the
justice secretary, the interior secretary and the foreign affairs
secretary, must be appropriately charged with treason.”
Araullo further
said, “Should our petition be granted, Balikatan and other joint
military exercises justified in the name of counter-terrorism must be
legally proscribed and stopped. Six years of VFA has only helped to
embolden the Armed Forces of the Philippines in its wanton violation of
human rights as exemplified by unabated extrajudicial killings
attributed to a murderous state policy Oplan Bantay Laya I and II.”
Bulatlat
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