SULU – US Ambassador Philip Goldberg has inspected American troops stationed in the town of Jolo in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, but his visit was criticized after the former Bolivian ambassador did not even bother to meet as a courtesy protocol with local Filipino government officials.
Goldberg visited Jolo together with embassy officials on June 2 and went straight to the Philippine Marine Brigade headquarters where US troops put up a small camp under the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P).
The capital town of Jolo is hosting both Philippine and US military bases, although the main headquarters of the JSOTF-P is inside the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City. Some sources told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner that local government officials, who learned about Goldberg’s prior visit in Jolo, had even prepared and ready to brief the former Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research in case he wanted to discuss peace and development efforts in the province.
But no one from Goldberg’s group and not even the US Embassy informed the Filipino officials that the ambassador is not meeting, even briefly, with them for a still unknown reason. Some government officials said they felt insulted with Goldberg’s action and likened the American ambassador to a cat. “You know, cats just go inside your house and leave whenever they want. Animals do not have courtesy,” one Filipino official said.
In the past, US Ambassadors Kristie Kenny and Harry Thomas, and other foreign dignitaries would always meet and pay their courtesy with local municipal and provincial officials every time they visit Sulu. Kenny in particular had repeatedly flown to Jolo and enjoyed the hospitality accorded by her hosts and the Muslim residents.
One military officer said Goldberg spent several hours inside the base where he met behind closed door with US troops and later police and military commanders, and former local exchange students who were invited by the embassy to meet with the ambassador, who was declared persona non grata by Bolivia in 2008 for plotting against Bolivia's government.
Many Muslims are opposed to the presence of US troops in Sulu because of the massacre of hundreds of locals, including women and children, in what is known now as the “Bud Dajo Massacre” which occurred more than 100 years ago, but the memory of the brutal American campaign is still fresh in the minds of many Muslims in Sulu.
Some 600 US troops have been stationed in the southern Philippines – on a rotation basis - since 2001 after three American nationals – Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, and California man Guillermo Sobero - had been kidnapped from a posh resort by the Abu Sayyaf. Sobero was beheaded by the rebels tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, while Martin was killed during a US-led rescue operation.
http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20140607025655
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