From InterAksyon (Aug 12): 'WORSE' | New PH-US military pact will expand presence beyond Subic, Clark - Bayan
The proposed agreement increasing United States military presence in the Philippines could be “worse” than the former military bases treaty as it will allow US troops beyond the former US military bases in Subic and Clark, the militant organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said Monday.
The new agreement, which is being negotiated starting Monday, “will allow US troops to be present all over the country. Every Philippine military facility, not just Subic and Clark, can now be accessed by US troops,” said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. in a news release.
More than the current “frequent port calls for refuelling, resupply and recreation, US forces will now be allowed to preposition their weapons and equipment in these Philippine facilities,” Reyes said.
This means turning the entire country into a huge US military base, he said.
“The prepositioning of weapons, nuclear warships and even armed drones, along with the continued rotational presence of troops, is tantamount to having de facto bases,” Reyes said.
Worse, he said, the Philippine government will have no control over these equipment and vehicles, citing the current Visiting Forces Agreement, which does not give the Philippines the the right to inspect these materiel.
“How prepositioning US equipment will help upgrade our military capability is a big mystery,” he said.
The agreement will turn the Philippines into “one big weapons depot for US forces,” Reyes said.
“The Philippines will be hosting equipment and war machine used in US intervention in other parts of the world. This makes the Philippine government complicit and supportive of US intervention,” he said.
'Learn from history'
Bayan listed at least two disadvantages of increasing US military presence in the country:
* It will violate national sovereignty. “Upholding national sovereignty means not only opposing China’s incursions but also rejecting continuing US intervention in our country. It is high time we realize that US interests are not identical with Philippine national interests,” it said.
* It will cause social and environmental damage in terms of prostitution and toxic waste dumping, as experienced when US had military bases before the Philippine Senate rejected the treaty.
* It will not develop the Philippine armed forces. “We had US bases for nearly half a century yet our armed forces still did not modernize. We have a VFA with the US since 1999, as well as several annual military exercises with the US and yet during that period, our armed forces still did not develop,” Bayan said.
History has shown that every time the US wants to justify its presence in the country, it would invoke certain threats to the Philippines.
“In the past, the Cold War and so-called communist threat was used to justify the presence of US bases. [George W.] Bush’s ‘war on terror’ was used to justify the permanent stationing of US troops in Mindanao from 2002 up to the present,” Bayan said.
The US is also unlikely to engage China head-on in behalf of the Philippines, Reyes said.
“In fact, there is nothing in the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty that says the US will automatically retaliate against any country that may attack the Philippines,” he said.
“What the US wants is to take advantage of the dispute with China to justify US presence in the Philippines, strengthen the US hand in Asia, further contain China and keep other countries in line,” he added.
Reyes reminded Filipinos of similar “imperialist ploy” used by the US when it adopted the policy of "benevolent assimilation" of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century when the US sought to "liberate" the Philippines from Spain only to end up colonizing us.
Bayan called on all who stood up to reject the US bases in 1991 and who have opposed the VFA since 1999 to come together to oppose this new arrangement. It also called on the Philippine government “to disclose the full details of the negotiations.”
The negotiations form part of the US strategic pivot to Asia where it aims to move 60 percent of its warships to the region as a means to advance its own agenda in the Asia-Pacific region, Bayan said.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/68443/worse--new-ph-us-military-pact-will-expand-presence-beyond-subic-clark---bayan
The commie America haters are at again. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN--New Patriotic Alliance) is the main CPP-associated umbrella front organization in the Philippines.
ReplyDeleteSame old propaganda lines. Nothing much has change in commie anti-US military propaganda in the past 30-40 years.
The commies remind me of "Chicken Little" who was always running around screaming that the "sky is falling, the sky is falling." The commie propaganda is shrill but lacks truth and substance.
Whatever agreements are reached between the Philippine and US government will be in accordance with the Philippine Constitution and the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement. Both sides will benefit.
Truth be told, during the heyday of the US bases, the Philippines had one of the best equipped and trained military organizations in Southeast Asia. However, in recent years successive Philippine governments have opted not to make the required investments in military hardware and the result has been a decline in the overall capabilities of the Philippine military.
Expanded RP-US military ties will be a good thing for the Philippines, the United States, and the region as a whole.