Press Release
March 15, 2009

KIKO CALLS ON OBAMA, ARROYO TO 'RETHINK, RESHAPE' RP-US TIES

Independent senator Kiko Pangilinan today called on President Macapagal-Arroyo and US President Barrack Obama to reshape RP-US ties foreign beyond the foreign policy initiatives of former US President George W. Bush, and move beyond the provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

"We should not allow our bilateral ties with the US to be framed primarily by the war against terrorism. As previously enunciated and propagated these past eight years by former President Bush and conducted through the VFA," Kiko said.

"The VFA has been used as a staging ground in the region for the rejected 'war against terror' employed by the Bush administration. I would be a mistake for the Obama administration to embrace the arrangement shaped by the highly questionable foreign policy initiatives of his predecessor," Kiko asserted.

"President Obama and President Arroyo are in terror by framing meeting bilateral ties in the context primarily for the existing VFA. This is being myopic and narrow-minded."

Pangilinan, who last month filed Senate Resolution No. 892 calling for the termination of the VFA based on supervening events as demonstrated in the Medellin vs. Texas case in the United States, said of President Obama's support for the treaty. 'The Obama support for the VFA is expected considering the treaty favors US interests more than it does our interests.'

Pangilinan called on Malacanang to uphold and protect the Philippine sovereignty Justas the United States is upholding theirs. "Malacanang should not point to Obama's support for the VFA as a means to shore up support for our own people. For them to do so is to suggest that they support US interests more than they do our own," Pangilinan pointed out.

Pangilinan strongly tried both leaders to move beyond the 'Bush doctrine' and re-evaluate RP-US ties with the context of changing needs and changing global circumstances.

"It is time to rethink and reshape RP-US ties and this means expanding their terms of our engagement with the US to include non-military bilateral arrangements and by revisiting the onerous provisions of the [VFA] with the end in the view of removing the same."

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