ASEANEWS HEADLINES: MANILA- Duterte demands $16 billion for hosting US troops
JOINT TRAINING In this photo taken in 2015, a team of US Marines and Filipino soldiers trains on a beach along the West Philippine Sea in San Antonio town, Zambales province, as part of the Balikatan military exercises between the United States and the Philippines. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
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TEDDY “BEAR’ LUK SHIN
MANILA, Philippines — In exchange for the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the Philippines should get something like $16 billion that Pakistan had received in counterterrorism assistance from the United States from 2001 to 2017, Malacañang said on Monday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the Philippines received only a total of $3.9 billion from the United States in the same period.
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President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said the US government must pay if it wanted to keep the VFA, an agreement signed in 1998 that allows American troops to come to the Philippines for joint military exercises with Filipino troops and humanitarian missions.
He ordered the abrogation of the agreement last year, but suspended the move because of the coronavirus pandemic and “heightened superpower tensions.”
Defense and foreign affairs officials have spoken against the termination of the deal, warning that the country could lose billions of dollars worth of assistance and that it could undermine Philippine defense and security arrangements.
Many critics have said the VFA, which also provides rules for the entry and departure of military personnel and supplies, is just as detrimental. For instance, it abdicates Philippine sovereignty when trying US personnel who commit crimes, they say.
READ MORE: https://aseanews.net/2021/02/16/du30s-extortionist-manila-philippines-duterte-demands-16-billion-for-hosting-us-troops/
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TEDDY “BEAR’ LUK SHIN
Here is the GLOBAL status as of Tuesday, 7am, February 16, 2021
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The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 218 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances.
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COVID-19 infection crosses 109.6 million globally as deaths cross are at 2.42 million.
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