‘End That Son of a Bitch’— Duterte Pulls Out of Key Military Pact With U.S.

Phillipine President Rodrigo Duterte will soon order the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the U.S. (Wikimedia Commons)

President Rodrigo Duterte will move to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the U.S., his spokesman, Salvador Panelo, said on February 7. The VFA facilitates the presence of U.S. forces in the Philippines, and it is one of three major bilateral military pacts between the two countries, along with the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). 

The move comes as a retaliation against the U.S. government’s cancellation of a tourist visa issued to Senator Ronald dela Rosa, Duterte’s close political ally, who helped spearhead the president’s controversial war on drugs. 

"[Duterte] said, and I quote him, 'I will instruct the Executive Secretary [Salvador Medialdea] to tell the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) Secretary [Teodoro Locsin Jr.] to send notice of termination to the U.S. government,'" according to Panelo. 

Duterte corroborated Panelo’s statement in a dramatic fashion. “I'm warning you... if you won't do the correction on this, I will terminate the... Visiting Forces Agreement. I'll end that son of a bitch," said Duterte in a January 23 speech that referred to the U.S. annulment of dela Rosa’s visa. 

However, just a day after Panelo’s announcement, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that the report about Duterte’s impending order to withdraw from the VFA was “fake news.” Almost immediately afterwards, Panelo denied Lorenzana’s claims.

“There is no inconsistency,” he said. “If [Duterte] has not given the instruction yet to [Medialdea], it does not mean the [information] I shared with media [sic] is untrue. It only means [Medialdea] has not yet gotten the directive from [Duterte].”

Nevertheless, officials, including Lorenzana and Locsin, admitted that they were not consulted prior to Duterte’s decision to withdraw from the pact. 

The VFA, enforced in conjunction with the EDCA, makes the Mutual Defense Treaty between the two countries “relevant,” according to Locsin. The key military agreement ensures that one party will immediately retaliate against a hostile force in the case that the other party is attacked. Moreover, the alliance earmarked nearly $1 billion in U.S. military aid and funding for other projects in the Philippines between 2016 and 2019. 

In addition, pulling out of the VFA would affect more than 600 joint activities with the U.S. that the Philippines “need[s] to enhance… capabilities in countering threats to national security," said Locsin. The DFA chief further claimed that although the treaty comes with certain “irritants,” “the continuance of the Agreement is deemed to be more beneficial to the Philippines compared to any benefits were it to be terminated.” Particularly, Locsin cites the U.S.’ role in helping the Philippines to quell an Islamic State-affiliated siege against Marawi in 2017. 

The historically close diplomatic relationship between the two countries is often placed in the context of China’s ambitions in the South China Sea, as well as the growing concerns of the U.S. that Southeast Asian powers might fall under China’s influence. These concerns are only augmented by Duterte’s shaky relations with the U.S.