Six senators asked the Supreme Court on Monday to uphold the Senate’s role in terminating or withdrawing from treaties with the United States and other countries.
READ: VFA termination issue may reach SC
Senate President Vicente Sotto III and five of his colleagues made the plea in a petition for declaratory relief and mandamus before the 15-member bench.
They are seeking to declare that a treaty previously concurred in by the Senate should require the concurrence of at least two-thirds of its members if the Executive department decides to withdraw from it or end it.
Sotto and Ralph Recto, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Franklin Drilon, Richard Gordon, and Panfilo Lacson also asked the magistrates to issue an order “directing respondents to forthwith refer the Notice of Withdrawal to the Senate of the Philippines for its concurrence, pursuant to Section 21, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution.”
They filed their petition almost a month after Manila notified the US it is terminating the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement, which governs the conditions under which American soldiers may be present in the Philippines.
The termination will take effect 180 days after the US receives the notice.
Before the deal was terminated, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to end the VFA if the US failed to restore the US visa of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, his former Chief of Police who administered his bloody war on drugs.
The senators named Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. respondents in their petition.
They also asked the Supreme Court to clarify the Senate’s role in the cancellation of treaties after Malacanañg canceled the Philippines’ Visiting Forces Agreement with the US.
The law requires Senate approval before the President can sign treaties with other countries, but the Constitution does not specify if the same rule applied to the cancellation of accords, Sotto told reporters.
Section 21, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution says treaties or international agreements are valid and effective when concurred in by at least two-thirds of the Senate’s members.
But government lawyers claim that the Constitution is silent on the need for the Senate’s approval in withdrawing from treaties.
Last week, 12 senators voted in favor of seeking the Supreme Court’s guidance on the issue, while seven others abstained from voting to allegedly “avoid offending” Duterte.
READ: Process to end VFA pact with US on—Palace
