STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE: Confronting the threat of US interests in the Philippines

(This article was first published in print in issue 18 of the Philippine Collegian on 29 November 2011.)

by John Toledo

It was business as usual for United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In the morning, she signed the “Partnership for Growth” (PFG) Framework on the US Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald before meeting with Philippine (PH) President Noynoy Aquino in Malacañang.

That afternoon, as she travelled to the National Museum, some fifty protesters hurled red paint and eggs on her convoy’s windows. Later, in an interview on national television, a protester in the audience shouted, “There is nothing mutual in the Mutual Defense Treaty [MDT]!”

Clinton was impervious to the protests. “I obviously disagree… I think there’s a real benefit to mutual solidarity… but it goes with that rhinoceros skin, you have to get used to it.”

The PH-US relationship has been characterized by imbalance, not the least in the staggering indifference of the US to the impact of its aggressive pursuit of its interests on the Filipino people. In events of diplomacy such as Clinton’s visit, US reaffirmed its vow to maintain dominance amidst growing political instability and financial turmoil.

Control

The five-year PFG framework Clinton signed last November 16, the latest in a century-long string of skewed agreements between the two countries, is intended to increase “trade [relations] and exports with other nations” to ensure a more “competitive” open market in the Philippines. With the PFG, America reassures the Pacific that they “are here to stay” as economic superpower of the Pacific.

The PFG could not have come at a more strategic time for the US. The numerous unproductive wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan had wasted almost $3 trillion with no returns, according to American economist Joseph Stiglitz. This state of financial turmoil has pushed US to bargain with other nations, where support for the ailing free market is secured with military and political aid..... MORE

Source:  Philippine Collegian

URL: http://www.philippinecollegian.org/strategic-offensive-confronting-the-threat-of-us-interests-in-the-philippines/