Cabinet members’ personal trips covered in US travel ban—Panelo

MANILA, Philippines—Cabinet members are also prohibited from going on personal trips to the United States, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo issued the statement after President Duterte barred his Cabinet from traveling to the U.S. amid the Philippine government’s move to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with Washington.

“Let’s not go there. Let’s defer to the President’s wishes,” Panelo said partly in Filipino when asked if Duterte’s order includes the officials’ personal trips.

Panelo, however, clarified that Duterte’s order did not cover Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. who was coincidentally in the U.S. when the President announced the travel ban.

He added that Duterte’s family will likely heed the travel ban in deference to their patriarch.

Duterte said his order, which he likened to a “boycott,” is part of his move to “tone down” relations between the Philippines and the US.

Since taking power in 2016, Duterte has publicly aired his disdain for the US—the country’s most important military ally and former colonizer—and his desire to pivot to China and Russia.

The current dispute was set in motion when the US Senate last month passed a resolution seeking sanctions against Philippine officials involved in the drug war and the detention of Senator Leila De Lima, a Duterte administration critic who has been detained for drug-related charges.

The standoff prompted Duterte to order the termination of the VFA which accorded legal status to U.S. troops who were rotated in the country for military exercises and humanitarian assistance operations.

Edited by MUF