MANILA, Philippines -- US President Barack Obama made a surprise telephone call to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo early Saturday morning (Friday night in the United States) to reaffirm his country’s alliance with the Philippines and its commitment to the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Palace officials, thrilled by the gesture that followed a series of failed attempts by Ms Arroyo to meet with the US President, could not help but point out that it was the latter who sought her out.

“They reaffirmed their commitment to the long-standing US-Philippine alliance, including the VFA which remains critical to the bilateral relationship and our strategic interests,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said, quoting from a White House statement.

Obama also “commended President Arroyo on her country’s efforts in countering terrorism, and modernizing the Armed Forces,” Remonde said, still quoting from the statement.

“The two leaders discussed the need to work closely together on the global economic crisis as well as on other areas of common concern, including climate change, education, and interfaith dialogue,” he said.

Remonde broke the news in the middle of an interview with the government-run Radyo ng Bayan. He said he had received a call from Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, who expressed “satisfaction” and “positive feelings” over the two Presidents’ telephone conversation.

“He [Romulo] considers this a very important development in the relationship between the two countries, especially under the Obama administration,” Remonde said.

“And Secretary Romulo wanted to stress the fact that this time, it was President Obama who was seeking President Arroyo,” he said.

Touchy issue

Sen. Francis Pangilinan warned administration officials against using Obama’s support for the VFA as a means to back the continued implementation of the agreement.

“For them to do so is to suggest that they support US interests more than they do our own,” Pangilinan, who has filed a resolution in the Senate seeking the abrogation of the VFA on constitutional grounds, said in a phone interview.

“Obama’s support for the VFA is expected considering that the treaty favors US interests more than it does our interests,” he said.

The VFA, which governs the conduct of American troops engaged in joint military exercises here, has again become a touchy issue with the US Embassy’s refusal to hand over an American Marine convicted of raping Filipino woman “Nicole.”

The Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 11 that Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith’s midnight transfer from the Makati City jail to the US Embassy in December 2006 violated the VFA, and ordered the government to negotiate his detention in a Philippine-run facility as he awaits the result of his court appeal.

But the US embassy has stalled on the negotiation, sparking a furor and prompting calls for a review of the VFA or its outright abrogation.

More time

Remonde surmised that Obama made the telephone call because he had more time now to talk with US allies abroad.

“I believe he has found more time to look at the larger role of the United States now that he has addressed the internal problems of his country. Maybe he has finally realized the importance of maintaining good relations with us,” Remonde said in a phone interview.

“It’s not necessarily because of the VFA. That’s one of the high points of Philippine-American relations, and talking about it is unavoidable,” he said.

The US President’s telephone call came a month after Ms Arroyo made an unscheduled two-day working visit to the United States to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, an annual gathering of US Congress members, and possibly meet with him.

That failed attempt was preceded by others in June and November last year.

Ms Arroyo also called to congratulate Obama on his election, but he returned her call only weeks later.

Not listening

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas assailed Obama over his support for the VFA.

“Obama is not listening to the Filipino people [or] to millions of Filipino-Americans in the US who voted for him for his promise to pull out US troops from Iraq and stop US military intervention and aggression in other countries. The new White House is nothing but a copycat of Mr. [George W.] Bush,” the alliance’s national chair, Fernando Hicap, said in a statement.

Senator Pangilinan said he was not sure if Obama’s telephone call was a form of quiet lobbying for the VFA, or whether the new US President, in making the call after spurning Ms Arroyo for so long, was in effect saying that bilateral relations could be affected by a Philippine move to abrogate the agreement.

But according to Pangilinan, Ms Arroyo should not allow bilateral ties “to be framed primarily by the war against terrorism, as previously enunciated and propagated these past eight years by former President George W. Bush and conducted through the VFA.”

‘In error’

Pangilinan, a Harvard University fellow, said the two Presidents were “in error” by framing bilateral ties primarily in the context of the agreement: “This is being myopic and narrow-minded. The VFA has been utilized as a staging ground in the region for the rejected war against terror employed by the Bush administration.”

He said Obama should break free of Bush policies. After all, he pointed out, the first ever African-American President had run on a platform of change.