VFA: Visiting Forces Agreement, not Virus from America

I can support the reported position of Senate President Tito Sotto to seek a judicial pronouncement on terminating international agreements. (News, 3/1/20). One-man rule is anathema, or at least, not preferred, if we are a true democracy. Any great silence in the Constitution must be seen in the context that it is a document of distrust in absolute rule.

No one in the Cabinet objects to ending the VFA? Was it really ever put in the agenda for a thorough full-blown deliberation? We may have a “chuwari-wari” Cabinet of echoes (who are just told), not voices (who may say, “wait a minute…” and ask “foolish” questions).

And is loyalty to fervent supporter Sen. Bato de la Rosa paramount? The surprise sudden termination didn’t result, though, in the United States capitulating by resurrecting his canceled visa. US President Donald Trump instead trumpeted the savings arising from the termination, and our President, said to have had his own US visa problems long ago, oddly claims he has just ensured the former’s reelection.

Involving others is simply more democratic in deciding an issue with polycentric dimensions. It is to recognize the citizen as a particle of popular sovereignty. If direct democracy in a country of 105 million is not workable, there is the Senate, through which the people can be heard in a representative democracy.

In one-man rule, the ruler does not feel bound to convene a body like the National Security Council (NSC). But the Senate may hold hearings, which makes the process not only legally tenable and intellectually respectable, but also leads to a decision that is also psychologically satisfying to the people heard and given some importance. Pamahalaan ng nakararami, ‘di po ng isang tao lang.

The President should have made a credible show of consulting the Cabinet, the NSC, previous presidents, and the Senate or its leaders, indeed, even the House of Representatives and its leaders.More democratic to avoid unilateral rash decisions. As Talleyrand would advise, “above all, no zeal.”

The VFA stands for Visiting For-ces Agreement, not Virus from America. If ending it was the right thing, and it may arguably well be, I am not certain it was done in the right way at the right time for the right reason.

R. A. V. SAGUISAG, Palanan, Makati City