The Philippines may consider finally terminating its Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States should American officials pursue the proposed policy cutting the grant of security assistance to the country, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Thursday.

Sen. Vicente Sotto III
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)

Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pennsylvania-7), along with 24 other members of the US House of Representatives, filed HR 8318 or the Philippine Human Rights Act, a bill that also seeks the government in Manila to comply with certain reforms within the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The bill was later referred to the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services for appropriate action by the Office of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“We cannot ignore these abhorrent abuses, nor allow our foreign assistance to be used for the repression of basic rights and dignity. I’m proud to stand with the labor movement both at home and abroad,” Rep. Wild said in a Tweet on Thursday.

“Then we should reconsider the VFA if they pass that,” Sotto said.

Sotto said the proposed legislation was “actually a big ‘if’” for its implications to the 22-year-old VFA between the Philippines and the US.

“If they pass a bill suspending security aid to us, then what will the VFA stand for?” he said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, said members of the US Congress are within their rights to file any legislative measure that seeks to suspend security assistance to the Philippines.

“As in our case, it will have to go through the mill of first reading and referral, committee hearings, and floor debates,” Lacson said.

“If adopted and approved, the said bill – HR 8313 – will not only be our loss but theirs as well, considering that a major part of the security assistance being extended to the Philippines is used to combat terrorism, which knows no borders and timing. And they know that for a fact,” Lacson said.

“And since the PH-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) is still existing, they may have to resolve that as a legal issue in their deliberations,” he added.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, however, downplayed the Wild’s bill, saying there is a small chance that the United States will suspend its aid to the Philippine military and police as the US knows how important the Philippines is to them.

Roque described the bill as a “wild” suggestion, playing on the surname of the legislator that introduced the measure that got the support of 23 other Democrat legislators. He said the bill may not even bear fruit.

“That's a very wild suggestion,” he said.

“Parang dito sa Pilipinas, kahit sino naman pong kongresista pwedeng maghain ng panukalang batas pero ang chances na 'yang panukalang batas na maisabatas ay napakaliit po (Just like here in the Philippines, any lawmaker can file a bill but the chances of it becoming a law is low),” he added.

Roque said the US knows that the Philippines is an important partner to their national security.

Last February, the Philippines had officially notified the US that it would terminate the VFA for the “disrespectful acts” of some US lawmakers, including their passage of the budget law which included a ban on the entry of Filipino officials involved in the detention of opposition Sen. Leila de Lima.

President Duterte slammed the US' cancellation of the visa of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who was his national police chief when the war against drugs started in 2016.

The termination was supposed to take effect in August.

In June, however, the government announced that it will suspend its abrogation of the VFA with the US for an initial period of six months due to “political and other developments in the region.” (With reports from Mario B. Casayuran and Argyll B. Geducos)

Vanne Elaine Terrazola & Roy C. Mabasa

PH may consider ending VFA should US cut security aid – Sotto