This paper is a reply to Declerck (1999), who criticizes the compositional tense theory proposed in Wada (1998a, 1998b). The aim of the paper is not only to show that Declerck's criticism on fundamental and crucial parts of the compositional tense theory is not adequate and thus the theory is still valid, but also to demonstrate, mainly based on Wada (1999), that the theory has more explanatory power than Declerck's own tense theory.