MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive barring his Cabinet from traveling to the United States will not escalate to a “severance of ties” between the two nations, Senator Francis Tolentino said.
“Hindi naman siguro aabot dun sa severance of ties. Historically engrained na yun,” Tolentino, vice chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, told reporters on Thursday when asked on the matter.
“Yung mga agreement naman are in place. Trade agreements are in place, (person to person) relations, nandun naman yun e, I don’t foresee, in the immediate future, a great impact,” he added.
Tolentino also does not think that the President’s pronouncement is “administratively controversial.”
“Under the alter ego principle, the Cabinet members are serving as alter egos of the President and if the principal himself would not be visiting a foreign country, he can direct his alter egos to likewise practice the same policy,” he said.
“So I don’t see any reason why that would be administratively controversial,” he added.
In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, the Chief Executive said he is now slowly “toning down” the relations between the Philippines and the United States.
Aside from barring his Cabinet from going to the U.S., Duterte also earlier threatened to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) if the U.S. government does not “correct” the cancelation of Senator Ronal “Bato” dela Rosa’s visa.
The President added that he would decline the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Las Vegas.
Tolentino also allayed concerns that the President’s non-attendance to the U.S.-Asean summit would result in economic losses for the Philippines.
“Yung U.S.-Asean summit was designed to bring Asean nations closer to our North American counterparts, yung sa atin naman, as a founding member of Asean, I don’t see any reason why it would affect. Venue lang yun e,” the senator went on.
“There are other bilateral venues that the Philippine can avail of…We continue to engage other countries, North American countries, for instance, immediately I don’t see any impact,” he added.