MANILA, Philippines?A bipartisan resolution calling on President Macapagal-Arroyo to ?revisit and accordingly terminate? the visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States is gaining ground in the Senate.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan on Friday told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone that two more of his colleagues had indicated their intention to back Senate Resolution No. 892, which he authored. But he did not name them, saying they would make the announcement themselves.

On Wednesday, five senators?Joker Arroyo, Pia Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Panfilo Lacson and Jamby Madrigal?affixed their signatures to the Pangilinan resolution.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. on Friday said he would follow suit. ?Since I voted against the VFA, I support [the resolution],? he said.

Pangilinan said Arroyo should be thanked for making public on Thursday a ?complemental agreement? that proved the one-sided nature of the VFA, which governs the conduct of US troops engaged in military exercises in the country.

The accord, which Arroyo had described as ?a well-kept secret,? is titled ?Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and Government of the Republic of the Philippines regarding the Treatment of Republic of the Philippines Personnel Visiting the United States of America.?

Told that the accord was not really a secret, Pangilinan said: ?All the more [it becomes] suspicious. What does this mean? Why was it not made public before? ?It raises more questions that need to be answered as to what kind of animal the VFA is.?

In a statement, the National Union Of Peoples? Lawyers said the accord was the ?VFA counterpart agreement.?

It said the accord ?provides for more humiliating agreements,? and was never studied or ratified by the Philippine Senate.

?VFA 2?

The VFA mandates that an American soldier who commits a crime in the Philippines will be detained at any US embassy or penal facility.

But under the accord signed on Oct. 9, 1998, by then US Ambassador to the Philippines Thomas C. Hubbard and then Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr., a Filipino soldier who commits a crime in the United States cannot be held in a Philippine embassy or consulate but ?shall be served in penal institutions in the United States suitable for the custody level of the prisoner.?

Danilo Arao, a journalism professor at the University of the Philippines? College of Mass Communication, on Friday said that the purported secret accord was called ?VFA 2? and was ?basically a reciprocal agreement.?

Myth of reciprocity

He told the Inquirer that it was ?a public document? and that he reprinted it in full as early as 1998 in a study he did for the research group Ibon Foundation.

Ibon published Arao?s article, ?VFA and VFA 2: The Myth of Reciprocity,? on Oct. 15, 1998.

?I have no beef against the good senator [Arroyo] in his arguments against the VFA. We only need to stress the fact that these arguments had been repeated time and again even in the years before the ratification of the VFA in 1999,? Arao said.

Because of ?Nicole?

According to Arao, ?there is no debate on the ill-effects of the VFA,? which was ratified by the Philippine Senate in 1999.

?It is just unfortunate that it would take the rape of an innocent Filipina almost 10 years after it was ratified to resurrect the issues,? he said, adding:

?All these arguments have already been raised. Right now [these are] being given due attention only because of ?Nicole.? These things are publicly known; it took an unfortunate incident for us to realize that the anti-VFA groups have been right all along.?

Arao was referring to the Filipino woman whom US Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was convicted in 2006 of raping while he was on shore leave at Subic, Zambales.

Smith?s continuing detention at the US Embassy in Manila?where he was moved from the Makati City Jail in the dead of night late in 2006?has triggered calls for the scrapping of the VFA.

The Supreme Court issued a ruling last week ordering Smith?s transfer to a Philippine detention facility while he awaits the resolution of his appeal.

Rank inequality

In a statement he issued Friday, Arroyo said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should explain the ?rank inequality? in the treatment of Filipinos in the United States and Americans in the Philippines.

?The DFA does not and cannot deny it. It is in black and white in the VFA 1 for Americans and the VFA 2 for Filipinos. The DFA should explain that rather than confuse and confound the issue with extraneous obfuscatory matters. After all, the present DFA did not execute VFA 2. It was done by the DFA of 1998,? he said.

On Thursday, Arroyo said the accord was ?part and parcel of the VFA? and constituted its implementing rules and regulations.

He said the accord was a ?solid argument? to back the assertion that the VFA was ?unequal, with no reciprocity and no mutuality.?

Cayetano on Friday said the accord ?should give senators more reason to call for the immediate review and abrogation of this lopsided [VFA].?

Said Escudero: ?Why was this secret pact not shown to the Senate when it was entered into? Who authorized it? And why is it only being revealed now? The one-sided relationship between the two countries gives our government all the more reason to terminate the VFA as soon as possible.?

?GMA should do it?

Pangilinan said it was President Macapagal-Arroyo who should scrap the VFA because she had the treaty-making power.

He said the Senate?s concurrence would come only after the fact.

?The President can terminate the VFA by sending the notice of termination to the DFA, which will then forward it to Washington on [her] behalf,? Pangilinan said.

?If she wants the attention of US President Barack Obama, she should terminate it. Bringing a new round of negotiations on the VFA is much better,? he said.

Pangilinan pointed out that the 1952 RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) was an insufficient military accord with respect to the entry of US troops into the Philippines.

?The terms have changed because of the 1987 Constitution,? he said. ?[The VFA] is specific to the entry of foreign troops in Philippine territory, which is illegal unless there?s a treaty. So the 1952 MDT should be harmonized with the 1987 Constitution. It cannot stand alone.?

Pangilinan said the Obama presidency had opened a ?window of opportunity? for the Philippines to redefine and reshape its relations with the United States.

?This is a wave we must be poised to ride if we wish to get the most out of the emerging situation. The VFA was used as an instrument to promote the Bush doctrine and initiatives, which are now being rejected ? We must embrace change and learn to navigate our foreign policy through the changes taking place,? he said.

Self-respect

In a statement, Sen. Loren Legarda, who is also expected to sign Pangilinan?s resolution said the issue was not just about the Philippines taking custody of a US soldier convicted of raping a Filipino.

?It is about having self-respect as a people and wiping out still lingering vestiges of colonialism among our leaders, who seem to lack the political will to do what is right,? Legarda said.

She said the accord allowing ?unequal treatment to Filipinos in favor of Americans in the detention of soldiers convicted of crimes is yet another proof of the unfairness of [the VFA].?

?We must abrogate it because as presently constituted, it is a humiliation of Filipinos,? she added. With a report from Kate Pedroso, Inquirer Research