Anakbayan: Youth group warns of repeat of ‘Nicole’ case in mauling of Filipino by U.S soldiers

Posted to  the pro-CPP Anakbayan Website (Nov 18): Youth group warns of repeat of ‘Nicole’ case in mauling of Filipino by U.S soldiers

The youth group Anakbayan has warned that a Filipino who was mauled yesterday by two U.S soldiers in Palawan will suffer the same fate as ‘Nicole’ of the infamous Subic rape case. Two American soldiers who are part of the ‘Balikatan’ war games, Keith Brautigan and Anthony DeSalvo, ganged up on Allen John Gapulao, a bouncer at a bar in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. “Judging from the track record of our government, especially that of the Aquino administration, in prosecuting offending foreign soldiers, we doubt that justice will be given to Mr. Gapulao” said Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan. Crisostomo blamed the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the U.S, noting that the same agreement was invoked in another recent controversy, the dumping of toxic wastes by a U.S Navy contractor’s warship in Subic Bay. The VFA was also at the center of the ‘Subic Rape case’ controversy several years ago, when four U.S Marines raped a woman in Subic. “American troops act like kings in our own country. They dump their toxic garbage, rape and beat up our fellow Filipinos because they know the Filipino government will come to their rescue and invoke the VFA so that they can go home scot-free” said the youth leader.

Junk the VFA

“For sure, Noynoy Aquino and his fellow puppets at the Armed Forces and the VFA Commission will come to the defense of these offending foreigners by invoking the need to not offend the U.S, and the myth that we need American military aid” said Crisostomo.  “The claim that the U.S wants to merely defend our country out of the goodness of their hearts is highly ignorant of international realities. It ignores the fact that the U.S violated the independence of Libya by bombing it. It ignores the fact that it is the U.S who has killed thousands of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan with its ‘predator drones’. It ignores the fact that the U.S is assisting Israel in the ongoing massacre of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” said the youth leader.

http://www.anakbayan.org/youth-group-warns-of-repeat-of-%e2%80%98nicole%e2%80%99-case-in-mauling-of-filipino-by-u-s-soldiers/