Progressives slam Aquino’s mendicancy, sellout to US imperial interests

Progressives slam Aquino’s mendicancy, sellout to US imperial interests

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A few weeks after American senators had visited Manila, anti-China pronouncements began to ring loud again in Philippine media, coupled with news that the US government is seeking to expand its military presence in the country and in the region.

As it was last year, the reported Chinese ‘bullying’ in the Spratlys is being met by the Philippine government’s efforts to bring into the region ‘the bigger bully,’ as Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño describes the trend.

This, despite the availability of another option that critics said would respect the Philippine sovereignty rather than trample on it, and evade further misunderstanding and confrontation in the region. This option revolves around bilateral and multilateral diplomatic initiatives and negotiations. But instead of pursuing this, the Aquino government has been playing tough against China under the shadow of the US military.

This is dangerous, said Rep. Casiño. He warned the Filipino public against the likely eventual mutually beneficial agreement between the US and China, “with us left out,” much like what the US and Spanish governments had done a century before following a mock battle in Manila Bay.

Wanted: a sovereign posture at foreign relations

There is a glaring need to upgrade the Philippine naval forces and its capability to defend against Chinese intrusions (or others’ intrusions for that matter), but why, peoples organizations asked, does the Aquino government’s “solution” hinge on provoking China and being mendicant to US?

“While we condemn China’s bullying tactics against the Philippines in relation to the disputed Spratly Islands and (while we) recognize the necessity to defend our just claims, there is greater danger in allowing an increased US military presence in our country in the hope of relying on US for help against China,” the progressive labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said in a statement.

Such danger becomes immediately apparent when the Chinese state media declared recently that China would punish the Philippines for allowing increased US military presence.

“We should brace for further misunderstanding in the region, all because the government chose to sell to the US instead of standing its ground and asserting its sovereignty in resolving the Spratlys issue,” Gabriela Women’s Partylist Rep. Emmi de Jesus said.

The Gabriela solon also said that an “assurance” that the US will not re-establish their bases in Philippine soil is something only government officials willing to be “hoodwinked” would swallow. “Only a puppet, mendicant President will believe this. We know very well that the Visiting Forces Agreement effectively expanded the areas where US military troops can operate and set up base,” said Rep. de Jesus.

US ‘deceptive’ about military basing in the Philippines

For 10 years now, even with an explicit Constitutional ban against foreign military bases, 600 US special operations forces have been stationed in Mindanao, southern island of the Philippines. Reports have placed US troops as participating directly and indirectly in different counter-insurgency operations. They have also been implicated in some cases of human rights violations, the most controversial of which were the rape cases of Nicole and Vanessa and the murder inside a US military facility in Mindanao of Filipino translator Gregan Cardeño.

US troops had been reported to be participating in sensitive domestic military operations against the perceived threats of the Philippine government such as the Bangsamoro rebel army, the communist rebels and groups such as the Abu Sayyaf.

Nancy Gadian, a former navy officer, revealed a few years ago that the US has established “bases” within camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). She revealed too how the US troops lord it over in those camps even among the Filipino soldiers, treating the Filipinos like “dogs.”.... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/02/03/progressives-slam-aquino%E2%80%99s-mendicancy-sell-out-to-us-imperial-interests/