Amb. Kristie Kenney Tells RP Senators: Back Off The VFA
The US Embassy has broken its silence about the ongoing renegotiation of the agreement she signed with Foreign Affairs Secretary Romulo on the detention of Lance Corporal Daniel Smith in the US Embassy since 2006 after a Regional Trial Court found him guilty of raping a Filipina in Subic.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gNNukAxEmvqXI4UVHJ2YRzzHScJA
In clear terms, Ambassador Kristie Kenney is asserting that the Visiting Forces Agreement (which at least 9 Filipino Senators want abrogated) is considered by her government as a treaty and that Washington D.C. is bound to respect it.
So she’s really telling the Philippine government, the Senate included, to back off while “guidance” of the US State Department is still forthcoming.
This is another way of saying President Barack Obama himself, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who skipped Manila in her just0completed maiden foreign mission, have not yet made a decision on how to handle the linked Daniel SmithVFA issue.
So they are telling us to BACK OFF.
