The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US is up for renegotiation, President Duterte said, as he maintained that his administration has veered away from a proWest foreign policy to avoid “trouble.” At a meeting of the government’s pandemic task force on Monday, former senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, who was invited by Duterte to talk about the West Philippine Sea row, noted that he had voted against the lease extension of US bases in the Philippines during the time of the late president Corazon Aquino. Duterte then claimed that the US substituted the lease deal with the VFA, a 1998 agreement that allows Filipino and American troops to conduct joint exercises on Philippine soil.

Romero, A., Romero, P., & Lee-Brago, P. (2021, May 19). VFA up for renegotiation; Rody gags officials on WPS. The Philippine Star, p. 2.