About 400 members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros staged a protest in Sagay City yesterday to oppose the presence of US Marines in the province.
The Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group that arrived February 25 is training Special Action Force members of the 6th Special Action Battalion, and allied local police operatives in Sagay City, in preparation for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Negros Occidental in April, Supt. Marlu Conag, battalion commander, SAF SAB-6, said earlier.
Courses on anti-insurgency, APEC tasking, human rights, K-9 handling, bomb and explosives, and terrorism are to be taken up with the policemen during the seven-week training that ends in early April, Conag said.
Christian Tuayon, BAYAN-Negros secretary general, yesterday said the presence of the US Marines in the province clearly violates the country’s sovereignty and symbolizes the continuing intervention of the US in the country’s internal affairs.
The so-called training to prepare for security for the upcoming APEC meeting is a smokescreen, he charged.
The real motives is the fielding of US troops as forward-deployed units capable for striking against enemies of the United States, which may include Filipino citizens, as well as direct intervention in counter-insurgency operations, Tuayon said.
He alleged that the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, transform every military and police camp as “agreed location” for the exclusive use of the US troops.
The Joint Special Operation Task Force has established permanent structures inside the WestMin Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines where they deployed troops and drones for surveillance and strike operations, Tuayon said.
“In Africa and in Pakistan, the US has been using drone strikes killing civilians and destroying communities. They do it in Mindanao and they could do it in Negros”, Tuayon warned.
Beyond the so-called training is the operationalization of the direct military intervention through the control and mobilization of local police to serve the political and business interest of US in the country, he added.
The location of the proposed oil and natural gas deposits in the Sulu Sea is seen as the reason behind their presence in the Negros island, as they were already granted to Texaco, a US-based oil company, Tuayon said.
More commie anti-US/US military propaganda. The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-New Patriotic Alliance) is the main Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) multisectoral front organization with chapters active throughout the country.
ReplyDeleteThe CPP has routinely displayed a level of paranoia over the activities of US military forces in the country expressing fears that their presence is intended to assist the Philippine military in targeting insurgent New People's Army (NPA) elements. The NPA is the military wing of the CPP.
False allegations regarding US use of armed drones in the Philippines along with the allegation that real objective of the US military presence is the exploitation of Philippine resources are recurring themes in CPP anti-US military propaganda output.