Various Militant groups gathers at the Plaza Salamanca before advancing to the premises of the US Embassy on March 3, 2012. Leftist group Bayan on Tuesday has slammed the planned rotational presence of US Military personnel in the Philippines, and has said that the superpower is taking advantage of the ongoing PH-China row. (Linus GUardian Escandor II)
“Biggest lie.”
This is how militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Tuesday describes the Philippine government’s claim that United States will help the PH on its territorial dispute against China as the negotiation for increased U.S. military presence in the country will start this week.
While recognizing the need to stand against ‘assertive’ China, Bayan believes that U.S. will not go ‘head-to-head’ with China as it has “a lot of economic interests” in the communist country.
“The US is merely exploiting the dispute,” Bayan Sec. Renato Reyes said in a statement.
This came a day after Sec. Albert del Rosario announced it will start talks for the framework agreement between Philippines’ Department of National Defense (DND) and U.S.’ Department of Defense allowing increased U.S. rotational presence in the country, which includes pre-positioning of major U.S. equipment.
Del Rosario earlier said that the increased rotational presence will help the country defend its territorial waters amid PH-China dispute over Spratly Islands.
“We stand ready to tap every resource, to call on every alliance, to do what is necessary in order to defend what is ours, to secure our nation and to keep our people safe,” del Rosario said on Monday.
Moreover, the militant group also dismissed the claim that the agreement will ‘modernize’ the poorly-guarded Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
According to Reyes, the US has no intention to modernize the AFP’s equipment, as “it wants to keep the Philippines dependent on US aid.
“PH soldiers are merely being treated to previews of weapons they can never have and methods they will never use. We’ve had US bases for nearly half a century yet our armed forces still did not modernize. We have a VFA [Visiting Forces Agreement] with the US since 1999, our armed forces still did not develop,” Reyes said as Bayan together with other militant groups gathered in front of the DND’s office where the first round of negotiations will be held on Wednesday.
The militant groups are asking for the full details of the agreements with the U.S. regarding “access arrangements for US troops and ships in existing PH military bases,” Reyes said.
Bayan has been protesting the presence of U.S. military in the country for joint exercises and its military bases in Clark, Pampanga and Subic, Zambales.
http://mb.com.ph/News/National_News/27008/US_exploiting_PH-China_row_-_Bayan#.Ugo48Y7D9lY
More coverage of the protest action conducted by the CPP umbrella front group BAYAN. Notice how these colorful commie protest actions, as small as they are, still manage to gain media coverage, even in a usually moderate/ conservative publication like the Manila Bulletin.
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