No reciprocity at all in VFA

“RECIPROCITY!” HOLLERED the Philippines’ local airline industry players. They’ve got valid fears to demand for it. Executive Order 29 introduces an “open skies” regime into the country. The government should heed their call, or else airline giants of other countries would soon drive local airlines out of business.

Reciprocity is a universal principle in international agreements. It is, among other things, grounded on equity. But didn’t our countrymen notice that it was not taken into consideration in the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) 1 and 2? Perhaps, the Filipinos’ rash sense of tiwala (we’ve fallen prey to this in the 1947 Philippine-US Military Bases Agreement) that the United States won’t put one over us, made our local negotiators forget to factor into our VFA with the US this important principle of reciprocity.

Let me point out one of the disparities: Article VIII (3) of VFA 1 (treatment of US military assets while in the Philippines) speaks of “Vehicles, vessels, and aircraft operated by or for the United States armed forces shall not be subject to the payment of landing or port fees, navigation or over flight charges, or tolls or other use charges, including lights and harbor dues, while in the Philippines.”

Article XV (treatment of Philippine military assets while in the US), speaks of “Vehicles, vessels and aircraft by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines shall not be subject to the payment of landing or port fees, navigation or overflight charges, road tolls or any other charges for the use of United States military installations which do not constitute fair and reasonable charges for services requested and received.”

The US military personnel and assets can enter anywhere in the country as they please, which they have done at the Subic Bay International Airport and freeport wharves repeatedly, that we have lost count how many times. But the Philippine Air Force’s lone C130, or the Tora-Tora if any still exists, can only do so in a US military installation like Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., and not at Newark in New Jersey or LAX in Los Angeles, which are both commercial international airports, or else it will be slapped with a bevy of fees and charges. And the caveat: our AFP’s request should not, in US judgment, constitute fair and reasonable charges; otherwise it shall be assessed and billed for, say, use of a military camp’s passenger terminal services. If that is what the United States calls reciprocal, I don’t know what isn’t.

Since the Senate is poised to review, or scrap, the VFA, our senators, led by our nanay in the Senate, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, should correct this injustice. Better yet, just scrap the agreement and, if need be, write a new one.

—TED P. PEÑAFLOR II,
Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Zambales,
tedpenaflor@yahoo.com