Locsin: Pandemic, superpower tensions led to Duterte’s change of heart on VFA

THE coronavirus pandemic and "heightened superpower tensions" were some of the reasons why President Rodrigo Duterte saw the need to suspend the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.

In a press conference where he asked for the physical presence of the media amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. read from a prepared statement where he said the President, “in the light of recent developments”, instructed him to “inform via diplomatic note the ambassador of the United States that we have decided to suspend the pending termination of the visiting forces agreement (VFA) which has several months more to run a stipulated therein."