43 Baltazar St .

Philamlife Village, Pamplona

Las Piñas City

Tel. No. 556-8952 • Fax No. 846-5893

E-mail address: emedakanay@yahoo.com

TO:  OPINION EDITORS AND SENATORS

            November 25, 2010

Dear Sir/Madam:

The agitation for the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States is ill-advised.  True, there are provisions in the agreement that violate the essence of Philippine sovereignty that have to be expunged; but to junk altogether the agreement is foolhardy.  The current confrontation between the two Koreas illustrates the need for super-power deterrence; otherwise conflagration can engulf the whole region.  In such an eventuality, the countries with inferior military structure will be mincemeat to its neighbors that may be encouraged by circumstances to make aggressive moves.  The Philippines is leading candidate for such ignominious lot.  Our armed forces have been fighting a communist insurgency for the longest time anywhere in the whole world, later complicated by a separatist armed movement in Mindanao . Catastrophic consequences are predictable if we were faced with external aggression.  The least we can do is make it easier for our allies to come to our assistance, assuming that doing so is also in their interest.

It will be a long while before our armed services could be relied upon to protect the country from intrusion by hostile elements from beyond our shores, hobbled as it is with the communist insurgency, the separatist movement in Mindanao and a terrorist threat lurking in every corner, compounded by rivalry of heavily armed groups of warring political warlords.  The greater challenge to them, however, is shedding the culture of boot-licking with powerful politicians that have produced ‘Garci Generals’ of the 2004 elections and the Maguindanao massacre a year ago.  In the final seven months of the GMA administration after the massacre and five months into the P-Noy government, the DND has yet to identify their officials and generals responsible for putting into the hands of the perpetrators of the massacre the high-powered weapons and equipment from the DND arsenal.  This is the mob that will protect our sacred shores!     

Very truly yours,

E. P. DAKANAY, JR.