Dear Sirs,
We are enclosing a copy of the letter we are sending to the members of the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines (with copy to President Joseph Estrada) with respect to the ratification voting which is going to take place soon.
As a Human Rights umbrella Organization in Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC, we firmly join all the ongoing initiatives and campaigns from so many sections of the Philippines civil society who, regardless strategies and political positions, reject the VFA as a threat to the Right to Free Determination protected by the International United Nations Covenants.
As we state in our letter, we are extremely shocked by the fact that, precisely in 1998, whilst the Centennial of the Independence of the Republic of the Philippines and the Anniversary of the UN Human Rights Declaration were being celebrated, the Visiting Forces Agreement was signed.
We are not able to forget either the comprehensive negative impact of the US military presence in the past, or that on 16 September 1991 the Philippine Senate (of which President Joseph Estrada was a member), accepted the majority opinion of the Philippine citizenship against the extension of the Military Bases Agreement of 1947. As long as this Agreement was in force, Human Rights protected by a wide range of International Law instruments, were grossly irrespected.
We fear that, again, if the VFA is ratified, its negative consequences will be back again but at an even larger scale. This is why the Visiting Forces Agreement is an issue of grave concern for the international community in general and Human Rights advocates in particular, and not just a domestic Philippine matter.
Yours sincerely,
Federación de Asociaciones de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos
Madrid, Spain
Hon. Blas Ople, Senator of the
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES,
Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee
Madrid, 17 May 1999
Hon. Senator:
The FEDERACIÓN DE ASOCIACIONES DE DEFENSA Y PROMOCIÓN DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS (Federation of Associations for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights), Spain, learnt of the signing in February 1998 of the Executive Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and that of the United States of America, formally called "Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the United States of America Regarding the Treatment of the United States Armed Forces Visiting the Philippines".
This Federation cannot help but expressing its perplexity regarding the signing of said Agreement (better known as "Visiting Forces Agreement, or VFA"), particularly in the year in which the Centenary of the Independence of the Philippines was being celebrated, and also in the framework of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We consider the VFA to be a violation of the provisions contained in the Philippine Constitution, specifically Article II, Sections 2, 7 and 8; Article VI, Section 28 (4), and Article XVIII, Section 25, by virtue of which, in legal terms, the Visiting Forces Agreement could be deemed as Unconstitutional.
Therefore, we have well-founded reasons for believing that such Agreement, should it take effect, would imply a violation of Philippine sovereignity, as well as an infringement of the International Human Rights Covenants and other International Law instruments subscribed by the Republic of the Philippines. We give below our oral statement to the effect at the 55th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva:
"The International UN Covenants on Human Rights in its Art. 1 clearly protect the right of all Peoples to free determination, For this reason, the Federation wishes to call your attention to the eventual threat to the right to free determination of the Philippine Nation if the international agreement planned between the latter and the Governament of the United States on the treatment of United States armed forces visiting the Philippines is finally concluded. On the one hand, the United States classifies this agreement as a simple executive agreement, whereas for the Philippines it is a true international treaty: the choice of he former legal process is a clear example of the scant legal importance attached by the United States to the instruments they use for their international relations with the Philippines. In the planned agrement, such essential issues as the type of activities to which the United States armed forces will be allowed to devote themselves during their stay in the Philippines are totally ambiguos, and no provision whatever is included to ban the introduction of nuclear weapons in Philippine territory, in compliance with the Constitution of this country. Moreover, the control of the entrance and exit of North American military and civil personnel is left almost entirely to the jurisdiction of the United States. Finally, under the provisions on criminal jurisdiction in the event of punishable actions commited by personnel of the United States, the prerogatives allowed to the latter are such that they imply the annulment of the sovereign powers of the Philippine State. We are perfectly entitled to wonder whether this draft agreement does not involve a new attempt to establish some new type of protectorate in a country which has recently recovered its international dignity".
Since it was founded more than ten years ago, this Federation has been following the developments in the Philippines, and has at its disposal sufficient evidence and documentation regarding the concern and rejection caused by the VFA in all sections of the civil society, particularly in the underprivileged classes, which would also be those most affected by the Agreement.
In view of the foregoing, and in answer to the repeated requests we have received from your country from different fields of activity and ideological positions covering a wide range of the Philippine citizenship, we URGE You, as a member of the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines:
To take into account that the Philippine Senate (of which President Joseph Estrada was a member at that time) in its historic voting of 16 September 1991, accepted the majority opinion of the Philippine citizens against the Military Bases Agreement of 1947 and rejected the extension of same, thus putting an end to the presence of US military personnel on Philippine soil, although not its negative consequences,
and be sensitive to the strong, generalized and legitimate oposition to the Visiting Forces Agreement that has arisen in your country, and should also firmly condemn and reject the ratification of an Agreement which would be detrimental to the safety and sovereignity of the Philipine people whom You represent.
Trusting that you will favour such a just decision, we remain respectfully,
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FEDERACIÓN DE ASOCIACIONES DE DEFENSA Y PROMOCIÓN
DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS
(Con Estatuto Consultivo ante el ECOSOC de Naciones Unidas)
Hermanos García Noblejas, 41 - 8º
28037 MADRID /ESPAÑA
TELEF.: 3491/408-41-12
FAX : 3491/408-70-47
e-mail:
fddhh@iepala.es
fddhh@eurosur.org
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