VFA with Japan won’t be finished within Aquino’s term

THE proposed Visiting Forces Agreement with Japan is not likely to be finished within President Benigno Aquino III’s term, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said on Wednesday.

“I think it will not be finished within his term. It’s a long process,” he said in a public forum on the VFA with Japan sponsored by the Pimentel Institute for Leadership and Governance held at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.

Gazmin noted that the recently passed VFA with Australia took seven years to finish.

During his visit to Japan early this month, Aquino, whose term ends in 2016, said the Philippines would soon start talks on a new pact that would allow visits of Japanese forces in the country.

The Philippines has a VFA with the United States and Australia.

Gazmin said the negotiations on the VFA with Japan have not yet started and it will most likely be about transfer of equipment and technology.

He also clarified that the talks would not include permanent bases.

Asked what would be the difference of the VFA between US and Japan, Gazmin said without elaborating: “The lessons we learned with the US will be corrected in the coming VFA.”

The Philippines is holding their second naval drills with Japan this week in Palawan, near the disputed South China Sea.

Both countries are former foes during the World War II and are both embroiled in territorial rows with China. Japan is in territorial dispute over the East China Sea.

“Some may also ask, why Japan? Have we forgotten what Japan did to the Philippines and the Filipino people during the second world war? To this, I say, we have not and will not forget what took place then, which is now a part of our collective experience and national psyche as Filipinos. But that does not mean that we should remain stuck in the past,” Gazmin said in his remarks.

Gazmin emphasized that the agreement is not directed against any country.

“Ito ay para magkaroon tayo ng minimum defense deterrent. Di ito against China. Kailangan ayusin natin para makatulong sa atin,” he said.

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