Ratification of Philippine-Australia pact stalled at Senate

Filipino protesters shout slogans as they burn a mock Australian flag during a protest against a joint military exercise with Australia outside the Philippine senate in Pasay City on Wednesday. AP

The Senate approved Wednesday on second reading the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (Sovfa) between the Philippines and Australia, but decided to postpone until late July the chamber’s final ratification.

Senators Joker Arroyo and Miriam Defensor-Santiago led the charge against Sovfa, succeeding in eliciting the sympathy of five more of their colleagues in postponing the third reading vote scheduled Wednesday.

Senator Loren Legarda, the chairperson of the Senate foreign relations committee, still managed to gain the support of 13 of the 21 senators present on the last day of the second regular session of the 15th Congress. That meant she was still two votes short of the necessary two-thirds of the Senate membership of 23 to ratify the agreement.

The Senate, which ratifies treaties made by the sitting President with other nations, requires at least two-thirds of its membership, or 16, to ratify the agreement.

Citing history and the regional tensions in the South China Sea, Arroyo and Santiago raised past and current issues with Australia in blocking the treaty’s ratification.

Also voting to approve the measure were Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senators Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Franklin Drilon, Vicente Sotto III, Pia Cayetano, Ramon Revilla Jr., Teofisto Guingona III, Antonio Trillanes IV, Edgardo Angara, Francis Pangilinan, Panfilo Lacson and Gregorio Honasan.

Voting no along with Arroyo and Santiago were Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Ralph Recto, Sergio Osmeña III, Manuel Villar and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Pangilinan has reserved the right to explain his vote once the resolution is taken up on third reading when the upper chamber resumes session on July 23.

The five-year-old agreement is contained in Senate Resolution No. 788, which concurs with the ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the governments of the Philippines and Australia.

The agreement was entered into by President Benigno Aquino on Dec. 23, 2010, and subsequently forwarded to the Senate for ratification.