MANILA – By now it is an inescapable fact that a large US-led military exercise is ongoing in the Philippines. For about two weeks until April 17, the country plays host to the 29th and largest US-led military exercises here. The US Embassy in Manila said the exercise will “enhance Philippine-US military interoperability and build military-to-military relations.” More than 8,000 Filipino and American military personnel are participating in drills being held in various locations throughout Luzon. US jet fighters are even slated to join the exercises, a rarity in previous joint military exercises in the country.
In the run-up to this exercise, US defense officials and US special forces troops had also flitted in and out of the country to discuss preparations with their Philippine counterparts. In fact, as US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas said during this Balikatan’s opening last April 5 at Camp Aguinaldo, members of US Armed Forces were here during typhoon Pablo four months ago. He boasted that that was why they were able to send aircraft to Mindanao within seven hours after the government requested aid in rescue operations.
“They want to be invited back,” Roland Simbulan, geopolitics expert and professor at University of the Philippines, said about Balikatan and US military basing here. He said that since the US announced its Asian pivot, it is concentrating in the region. Last year, an Asia Times correspondent estimated [2] that the US would include “probably another base in the Philippines in the short term, inciting animosity between the Philippines and Vietnam and China.”
The US already has one unofficial military base in Southern Philippines, plus access to former bases in Clark, Pampanga; Subic, Zambales, and other ports and airports of the Philippines. It has an unofficial base in Australia, where it deployed 2,500 US troops, and reports said it has been increasing deployment or bases or ships in South Korea and Japan.
This latest Balikatan exercise, Simbulan told Bulatlat.com, is playing a role vis-a-vis the heightening tension in Korean peninsula. “The ongoing Balikatan military exercise serves as one of the US’ show of force,” amid regional tensions that critics said are largely fomented by the US The latest is the trouble at the Korean Peninsula [3]. The US reportedly committed one action after another, from putting in place a “kill chain” to distorting North Korea’s recent satellite launch to be reported in the West as intercontinental ballistic missile test launch.
Balikatan 2013: A show for US’ shock and awe
Filipinos are traditionally not given a list of military hardware and equipment being used in the military exercise, nor the various interoperability issues they intend to work on as they build their “military-to-military relations.” The Balikatan military exercises, said the US Embassy, include humanitarian civic assistance, which so far have been duly reported with front page pictures in the news. Other activities of the military exercises itself, which include “senior leader engagements, a command post exercise, field training exercises, and maritime security and ship drills,” so far do not have detailed reports.
At least, the public is told that this largest Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) exercise employs an amphibious dock landing ship of the US 7th Fleet, the USS Tortuga (LSD 46), which arrived in Manila on April 2. The Tortuga is part of the Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and is currently deployed to the US 7th Fleet’s area of responsibility. The Bonhomme Richard ARG reports to the US commander, Amphibious Force 7th Fleet, Rear Adm. Jeffrey A. Harley, who is headquartered at the US military base in White Beach, Okinawa, Japan.
While the military exercise is ongoing, another US warship, the US Navy’s first littoral combat ship, arrived for the first time in Manila (on April 8) and in Southeast Asia. Its port visit is for refueling and receiving supplies for the next period of its eight-month deployment. The combat ship’s port visit is unrelated to Balikatan, the US Embassy said. But it will take part in other US-led military show of force in the region, for example, in the International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference, and in select phases of the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training exercise series in Southeast Asia.
A show for whom
In the first place, why is there a need for US and Philippine forces to “enhance interoperability, and build military-to-military relations”?
From releases of US and Philippine governments, the simplest explanation appears that as allies or treaty partners, “interoperability” will make it easier, or seamless, for troops of the two nations to work or mesh together or cooperate in missions, gathering and sharing of intelligence, etc. This implies that the US and Philippine armed forces are expected to operate like one, even if the Philippines is supposedly a sovereign and independent state. This apparent subordination of Philippine troops and territory to US government’s armed forces is one of the things that irked Filipino progressive groups.
In a rally in front of Camp Aguinaldo hours before Balikatan’s formal opening on April 5, they reminded the public that these US troops now doing war exercises and other vaguely defined operations in the Philippines had in fact killed nearly a fifth of the Philippine population in early 1900s, when it engaged the nascent Philippine Republic in a war.
For over a century Filipinos have continued to fight and die for Philippine independence, succeeding in 1940s but still remaining under the US government and US military by various economic and military treaties (from parity rights to military basing rights). After decades of campaigning, Filipinos finally shut down the US military bases in 1990s. But now, especially after the 2011 declarations of US pivot to Asia, they are back for increased “routine” dockings, landings, refueling, rest and recreation and military exercises such as Balikatan.
In case there are conflicts, such as shown by the case of the two Koreas, and the Philippine armed conflict with revolutionary groups, the “US will rely more on its allies for its ground operations,” Simbulan said, explaining that the US government, especially Obama has been traumatized by high casualties. American soldiers dying in wars around the world is politically costly for the US government. This is why the US relies more on small-unit special forces operations, training of surrogate forces, and use of high-tech equipment such as drones.
Military trainings to develop interoperability are crucial for the US, especially when it is about to drag an ally to start or join its war. Also, military exercises such as Balikatan plays a role in US sales of arms, Simbulan told Bulatlat.com.
During Balikatan and other drills for interoperability, US troops demonstrate their equipment and Filipino soldiers, and the troops of other nations, which the US regards as its surrogate forces, get to try it out. Later, they can place orders for it. US provides soft loans for that, Simbulan said.
For the US economy
Three days before the start of Balikatan, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert Del Rosario met with Secretary of State John Kerry during the former’s visit to Washington to discuss the two countries’ bilateral relations last April 2. In Kerry’s remarks before the meeting, he said they would discuss ways to strengthen trade relations between the two countries, and in particular, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Two years ago, in a bid to enter the Tans-Pacific Partnership, the Philippines entered into an agreement with the US called the Partnership for Growth.
This partnership demonstrates the Philippines’ commitment to ‘economic reform’ to foster a more conducive investment environment. It has a joint steering committee composed of representatives from the US and Philippines, meeting every six months. It is essentially, a mechanism to shape Philippine economic policies to conform to the interests and needs of the US economy.
The Aquino is in need of a lot of funds, as the Philippines is frantically trying to boost the capabilities of its backward armed forces [4]. “Though Southeast Asians don’t like to hear it, there is an arms race going on in the region,” said Inkster, now head of trans-national threats and political risk at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“In a way military exercises are a big trade show where technics and weapons are demonstrated,” Smbulan said.
“If they (a country) buy weapons, it is in package deal, complete with military advisers and training in the use of the purchased weapons. They come in to train local units, armed forces, in how they can effectively use those weapons.
In the US at the beginning of Obama’s government, the US was supplying 20 percent of the developing world’s arms purchases. Before 2012 was over, this has jumped to 79 percent. The Obama Administration has increased the US industry’s arms sales to the Third World from a level of $9 billion per year during the 2004-2007 Bush years to $56 billion in the pre-election year of 2011.
Now that the Aquino government and the military had passed the Modernization Law, which also allows requests to exempt some contracts from public bidding, the country has gained billions of funds for arms acquisition.
URLs in this post:
[1] Bulatlat.com: http://www.bulatlat.com/
[2] an Asia Times correspondent estimated: http://rt.com/news/us-philippine-drills-china-967/
[3] fomented by the US The latest is the trouble at the Korean Peninsula: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/04/09/whats-annoying-the-north-koreans/
[4] to boost the capabilities of its backward armed forces: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/10/arms-vietnam-idUSL5E8DAA0820120210
[5] Image: http://bulatlat.com
Bulatlat is an online publication associated with the "national democratic movement" a euphemism for the CPP and its associated front organizations. Bulatlat routinely publishes material that conforms with the CPP propaganda line. And it oftentimes publishes CPP/NDF statements and propaganda releases in their entirety.
ReplyDeleteRoland Simbulan is a University of the Philippines professor with a long track record of opposing the U.S. military presence in the Philippines. Prof. Simbulan has authored the following books: The Bases of Our Insecurity(1983,1985, 1987); A Guide to Nuclear Philippines(1989); and The Continuing Struggle for an Independent Philippine Foreign Policy(1991 and he has written a widely-circulated pamphlet on the "The Hidden History of the CIA in the Philippines." The Bases of Our Insecurity was considered a seminal work by those involved in the anti-bases movement back in the late 1980s-early 1990s.
More recently (2009) he published a work entitled Forging a Nationalist Foreign Policy: Essays on US Military Presence and the Challenges to Philippine Foreign Policy. He subsequently participated in a forum/book launch for his work put on by the U.S. Troops Out Now-Mindanao Coalition (see http://www.arkibongbayan.org/2009/2009-11Nov23-ForumbooklaunchonUStroops/RS%20book%20luanching.htm)
Furthermore Simbulan has held or holds positions in several organizations that are CPP fronts or are influenced by the clandetine movement.
Simbulan also helps maintain YONIP.com - the Philippine Peace & Sovereignty Website that routinely posts anti-US propaganda especially on the alleged "toxic waste issue" at the former US bases and the Balikatan exercises/Visiting Forces Agreement (see http://www.yonip.com/index/-VFA.html)
Bottom line: Bulatlat and Simbulan can hardly be considered "unbiased" sources. They are propagandists in the CPP tradition pure and simple.