“Partnership or Subservience? Reassessing Philippine-U.S. Military Relations”

“Partnership or Subservience?

Reassessing Philippine-U.S. Military Relations”

SCHEDULE and VENUE

September 12, Monday, at 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

Pulungang Claro M. Recto Hall (Faculty Center Conference Hall),

Bulwagang Rizal, College of Arts and Letters,

University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City

SPEAKERS

Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III

Representative, 4th District of Quezon

15th Congress, Republic of the Philippines

Atty. Evalyn Ursua

Professorial Lecturer

College of Law, University of the Philippines

Edilberto Adan (TBC)

Undersecretary

Department of Foreign Affairs, and

Executive Director

Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement

Hon. Joseph Ejercito Estrada (TBC)

Former President

Republic of the Philippines

ABOUT THE FORUM

The Filipino people’s victory in its struggle to close and dismantle the U.S. bases in 1991 was

one shining and glorious moment in our history. It demonstrated how our united will could

move the Philippine Senate, which had long been dominated by pro-bases senators, into asserting

national sovereignty.

More than ten years of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which supplanted the U.S.

Military Bases Agreement in 1998, is sufficient time to review how this later agreement has

affected issues of national sovereignty and security, and the life of our people. After a series of

public hearings on the VFA, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the previous

Congress came out with its report, and forthwith its chair, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago,

authored Senate Resolution No. 1356, calling for the termination of the VFA, which was

approved by the Senate in 2009. Similar resolutions were filed in the current Congress by

Senator Santiago in the Senate (Sen. Res. No. 3), and by Representative Lorenzo R. Tañada III in

the House of Representatives (House Res. No. 17).

The P-Noy Administration’s response in the later part of 2010 was to initiate a review of the

VFA to be headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, justifying that termination may be too

radical. Nothing has been heard of the status or results of the review. High-ranking U.S. political

and military officials have come and gone, during which the VFA must have been taken up, yet

the P-Noy Administration continues to be mum about the matter.

This forum seeks to generate public discussion on the thirteen-year old VFA, and to serve as a

venue for apprising the public of updates on the ongoing review of the VFA under the P-Noy

Administration.

Co-organized by

UP Third World Studies Center,

UP Diliman Department of Political Science,

and

SCRAP VFA Movement