From InterAksyon (Jul 3): Aquino courting impeachment over planned bases access deal - group
President Benigno Aquino III could be courting an impeachment case for suggesting that the United States and Japan would be given access to former American military bases in the country, an activist group said Wednesday.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said granting the two countries basing rights, even temporarily, could constitute culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution and betrayal of public trust.
"Obviously, the President is consciously and deliberately circumventing the Charter. Whether the use of bases is permanent or temporary, the Constitution bans US, Japan or any foreign military bases and troops in the Philippines," Antonio Flores, KMP secretary general, said in a statement.
Flores stressed that the Constitution "expressly prohibits foreign bases, troops and facilities" in the country.
On Tuesday, Aquino said giving the US and Japan access to the former military bases would allow the Philippines to forge a "credible alliance."
The US maintained Subic Naval Base and Clark Air Base until 1991, when the Philippine Senate voted to terminate the Philippines-US Military Bases Agreement.
Section 25, Article XVIII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution states: “After the expiration in 1991 of the Agreement between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of America concerning Military Bases, foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate and, when the Congress so requires, ratified by a majority of the votes cast by the people in a national referendum held for that
purpose and recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State.”
“The President is courting an impeachment complaint for culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for trampling our sovereignty and rabid puppetry to the US,” Flores said.
The KMP also assailed Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin for “deceiving the Filipino people” by saying the Philippines would not build new bases and would instead transfer its own military facilities to Subic.
“With or without new facilities, the fact is, US troops will be given access to the already existing military facilities they left in 1991. Under the guise of moving the Philippine Navy and Air Force to Subic, the Aquino government paved the way for the return of the US military bases in Subic,” Flores said.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/65485/aquino-courting-impeachment-over-planned-bases-access-deal---group
This "activist" group, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP--Philippine Peasant Movement) is, in fact, a Communist Party of the Philippines peasant front with chapters scattered throughout the Philippines. The group is a founding member of the main CPP umbrella front organization, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN--New Patriotic Alliance).
ReplyDeleteHere's a question that never seems to surface in the Philippine media: How is it that these relatively small CPP front groups seem to garner so much press coverage??