Someone once said that VFA stands for ?Victory for America.? After being kicked out from Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base in 1991, US forces returned to the Philippines under a new agreement.

Remember what took place almost 20 years ago. It started with Secretary Raul Manglapus reading the notice of termination of the Military Bases Agreement (MBA) during Exploratory Talks with American negotiators led by diplomat Richard Armitage in May 1990: ?The government of the Republic of the Philippines notifies the government of the United States that the 1947 RP-US Military Bases Agreement as amended, ends on September 16, 1991.?

The notice had immediate repercussions. The United States sent home 261 of its Peace Corps volunteers, citing security concerns. It seemed that even the Almighty was upset. In July 1990, an earthquake of intensity 8 struck Luzon, killing 1,600 people and causing billions of pesos in damages. US forces were immediately on the scene in areas like Baguio and Cabanatuan, providing assistance and support to government rescue efforts. Two weeks earlier, typhoon ?Ruping? battered Cebu City, slowing down traffic between the city and the Mactan Export Processing Zone. As administrator of the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) at that time, I had to arrange the barging of exports and imports in and out of the zone since the only bridge between the mainland and Mactan had been declared structurally unsafe. It had been hit by a Korean vessel at the height of the typhoon.

In June 1991, Mt. Pinatubo erupted, covering Manila with a fine layer of ash and rendering the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) inoperable for a week. Armitage announced that the United States was considering abandoning Clark because of the damage wrought by Pinatubo.

After much wrangling, a new Bases Treaty was signed on Aug. 27, 1991. It was called a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security. Its main features were: Clark was to be turned over after a year while Subic was given a 10-year extension. The compensation package was $863 million for the first year, and then $203 million per year for the next nine years on a ?best efforts? basis.

On Sept. 16, 1991, the Senate began deliberations on whether or not to ratify the new treaty. During marathon proceedings lasting almost 10 hours and carried live on television, the Senate rejected the treaty by a vote of 12-11, with Senate President Jovito Salonga putting in the last ?no? vote. The Senate President today, Juan Ponce Enrile, voted against the treaty, explaining his position, saying, ?I cannot live with a treaty that assumes that without some 8,000 servicemen and some passing warships, we shall fall flat on our faces. I cannot believe that the vitality of this country will be extinguished when the last bar girl in Olongapo turns off the last light in the last cabaret ...?

In their anger and outrage, the Americans refused to leave behind even the driving range golf balls at the Subic Binictican golf club, and the orders went out to take with them everything that wasn?t nailed down. President Cory Aquino made the mistake of asking them if they could leave behind one of their floating drydocks.

On Nov. 24, 1992, the helicopter carrier USS Belleau Wood sailed out of Subic, ending America?s presence in the country, a presence which started on May 1, 1898 when Admiral George Dewey of the US Asiatic Fleet entered Manila Bay to destroy the Spanish Fleet stationed there.

At the time of the Senate vote, my wife and I were on vacation in California. A cousin of mine drove us out to Carmel on the Monterey Peninsula for a golfing holiday and since Pebble Beach was a bit too expensive and heavily booked, we settled on Spanish Bay and Spyglass Hill, considered by many as the Peninsula?s toughest course. While Penny remained at the clubhouse, my cousin and I joined two other golfers to form a foursome. While the initial meetings were cordial, the atmosphere turned chilly when they realized we were from the Philippines. The news headline of the day carried the story on the Philippine Senate vote and the two were Navy vets who were at one time stationed at Subic.

During the tail-end of the Ramos administration, less than seven years after the Bases Treaty was rejected, a new agreement called the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) was signed by Secretary Domingo Siazon, Jr. and Ambassador Thomas Hubbard.

In voting for the new arrangement, 18 senators favored the VFA, versus five against it. Of the 18, those still in the Senate are Rodolfo Biazon, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla and Gregorio Honasan. Of the five, only Senators Aquilino Pimentel and Loren Legarda remain. The agreement paved the way for the resumption of bilateral military exercises between the Philippines and the United States, as well as the strengthening of defense and security cooperation between the two countries.

Last month, 10 years after Senate concurrence on the VFA, Senator Santiago in her capacity as chair of the Legislative Oversight Committee on the VFA, called for ?a renegotiation of the agreement with the United States and in case of denial, notice of termination of the VFA.?

In her resolution expressing the sense of the Senate, Santiago noted that although the VFA calls itself a ?visiting? agreement, it has been in force for some 10 years. She added that ?the fatal flaw of the VFA is the failure to specify the period of stay of visiting forces and the failure to define what are the activities that they can engage in while in Philippine territory.? Amazing! One wonders how 18 senators of the land could have voted in favor of the VFA without resolving these basic issues.

As with the exploratory talks over the former Bases Agreement, it appears that the Almighty was also upset by Santiago?s proposal. A week after her hard-hitting speech, Typhoon ?Ondoy? struck, causing the worst flooding of Metro Manila in decades. Ondoy was followed a few days later by Typhoon ?Pepeng,? causing even more deaths and destruction in Northern Luzon.

In 1990-1991, it was an earthquake of intensity 8 followed by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Twenty years later, Ondoy and Pepeng hit us with even greater intensity than the earlier disasters. Again, US forces were highly visible, moving about the disaster areas providing assistance and resources to communities that were in bad shape.

It appears that whenever there is even just a hint that American forces should leave, we are overtaken by disaster. Call it pure coincidence or simply the result of climate change. Whatever the reason, perhaps it is best to set aside any discussions on the VFA until after a new administration is in place next year.