Malacanang rebuffed on Wednesday Senator Panfilo Lacson over his comment against President Rodrigo Duterte, saying that the Chief Executive is a lawyer who passed the examination on Constitutional Law.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the statement after Lacson told Duterte that even a non-lawyer like him knew that the senators have something to do with international agreements, such as the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States.

"Senator Lacson, the President only did not read the Constitution. He's a lawyer. He passed in the bar where one of the questions or subject areas in the examination is the Constitution(al) Law," Roque said in state-run television station PTV4.

"There's no doubt that the Chief Executive or the President is the chief architect of our foreign policy. It's not stated in the Constitution, but that was a subject of so many decisions of our Supreme Court," he added.

Duterte earlier said that the US should pay for the continuance of the VFA, prompting some quarters, including Lacson to criticize the President.

The senator called Duterte's remarks about VFA as undiplomatic, which irritated the President.

In his televised message last Monday, Duterte said that senators have no role in the international agreements as it is vested in the president.

While Lacson was correct in saying that under the Constitution a treaty needs concurrence of the Senate, Roque said that a treaty is just one of the instruments in foreign policy.

"And the concurrence of the Senate is needed because the act of concurrence is the reason why a treaty becomes a law," he said.

However, Roque, who used to be a law professor, said, "the VFA is not a treaty. That's the decision of our Supreme Court."

He said that the VFA is being implemented only due to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty of the Philippines and the US.

The VFA, which was ratified in 1998, however, was approved by the Philippine Senate by a two-thirds vote of its members, in May 1999.

Since there is a pending petition on whether or not the abrogation of the VFA still needs the Senate concurrence and neither a temporary restraining order was issued, Roque said Duterte can terminate the military agreement with the US.

Last year, Duterte ordered the termination of the VFA. But he later directed the suspension of the process of abrogation amid the coronavirus pandemic that hit the world, including the Philippines. Celerina Monte/DMS