Posted to the PRWC Blog (Jan 8): CPP
denounces persistent US violations of Philippine sovereign airspace amid
discovery of crashed US drone
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today said the retrieval yesterday
of a crashed US military drone off the coast of Masbate island "brings to the
fore the persistent and gross violations of Philippine airspace by the US
military. The Aquino regime no less," said the CPP, "has flouted the country's
sovereignty in allowing the US to fly its jetfighters and surveillance drones at
will within Philippine territory."
Fishermen last Sunday
retrieved the drone near Sitio Tacdugan, San Jacinto, Masbate. Markings on the
drone indicate it to be a BQM-74E Chukar III, a device manufactured by the
Northrup Grumman Corporation. The US embassy claimed that the UAV is a target
drone used by the US Navy in military exercises, although the device is
regularly used in reconnaissance missions or surveillance operations by the US
military and is also capable of delivering payloads.
As before, the AFP
was fast to defend the US military, claiming that the drone did not fly and
crash in Philippine waters but was only carried in by waves, even before any
investigation could be carried out, and even before the US military could issue
a definitive statement on the matter.
"Whatever the circumstances behind
the crashed US military drone retrieved in Masbate, what cannot be denied is the
fact that the US has long been flying not only surveillance drones, but military
jetfighters within Philippine territorial airspace," said the CPP. "The US
military uses so-called joint military operations as cover to fly its drones to
carry out surveillance operations in the Philippines."
"Benigno Aquino
III, the puppet chieftain of the US neocolonial state, has given the US the
go-signal to carry out drone surveillance operations," the CPP said. "In an
interview by the foreign press in 2011, Aquino claimed that he does not favor
the operations of US strike drones but asserted that surveillance drones are
fine, as if this violates Philippine sovereignty any less."
The CPP
asserts that surveillance operations by US military drones constitute
involvement in combat operations. "Aquino's claims that surveillance operations
are not violative of Philippine sovereignty reveal his outrageously distorted
concept of Philippine territorial integrity."
The CPP cited reports by
the Associated Press that on February 2, 2012, the US military was involved in a
Philippine military operation that dropped so-called "smart bombs" in Parang,
Jolo to target alleged "key terrorist leaders."
The CPP also cited an
incident on January 29, 2009, where top military and police officials at the
507th PNP Provincial Mobile Group camp in Uson, Masbate witnessed the operation
of a US drone by American soldiers that would carry out surveillance operations
on the island. The drone, however, caught fire and crashed as it flew over the
towns of Pio V Corpus and Esperanza.
http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2013/01/cpp-denounces-persistent-us-violations.html
Anticipated propaganda attack from paranoid Maoists. The target drone was not a surveillance UAV. Ocean currents apparently caused the droe nto drift into Philippine waters following an exercise in the Guam area.
ReplyDeleteUAV activites in the Philippines are conducted with the consent of the government and the Philippine military. They support military exercises and counterterrorist operations against groups like the Abu Sayyaf.
Apparently the commies would rather have the Philippine people suffer the depradations of terrorist attacks rather than have the US provide intelligence support to the Philippine military to help them deal with terrorist groups bent on killing ordinary Filipinos.