Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario on Sunday said terminating the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) would not be beneficial to the Philippines.

“It behooves us to fully revisit the decision to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) for several valid reasons,” Del Rosario said in a statement.

He said one of the reasons was that the VFA is an essential agreement to both the Philippines and the US in effectively implementing the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).

“Second, without the VFA, making the MDT work would be more challenging, especially since we now have specific external threats as well as more devastating natural calamities,” he said.

“Third, terminating the VFA would serve to actualize our pivot towards China against the strong and vehement objections of our people,” he added.

While the VFA is admittedly an imperfect agreement, Del Rosario said another reason was it would interrupt the benefits of the MDT with regard to the joint training and exercises, the pursuit of modernization, achieving interoperability, and providing assistance during natural calamities.

“Fifth, if we may recall, the quick US relief response during the Yolanda disaster was made possible by the VFA. Other countries wanted to immediately respond but were constrained by the lack of legal arrangements for their troops to enter the Philippines,” he said.

“At its peak, the US military efforts included more than 13,000 military personnel, 66 aircraft and 12 naval vessels. The US delivered more than 2,500 tons of relief supplies and evacuated over 21,000 people,” he added.

The former secretary said if President Rodrigo Duterte wants to improve the MDT and the VFA, he should accept the invitation of US President Donald Trump to participate in the US-ASEAN Summit in March.

“Should our President wish to improve the MDT and the VFA, he may wish to accept the invitation to meet President Trump. This would present an excellent opportunity for our President to place on the table his full expectations pertaining to our bilateral relations,” Del Rosario said.

In a radio interview, Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said other agreements Philippine-US will remain despite the termination of VFA, which according to him was only beneficial to the American soldiers. Ella Dionisio/DMS