The projected “Asia pivot” policy by the US could be an ushering of a horrifying phenomenon that would make the Philippines the major launching pad of US military adventures in the region. Offhand, we foresee a Philippines turned into a veritable garrison statemanned by American troops and propped up with US awesome war technology.
The following news report is a darkly ominous forecast it should make every Filipino shudder in revulsion. Read the following with bitter tears and shrill anger in your heart –
MANILA (Reuters) – The United States has asked for access to Philippine military bases in eight locations to rotate troops, aircraft, and ships as Washington shifts its forces to Asia.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in a speech in Arizona, has outlined Washington’s next phase in its Asia “pivot”, deploying its most sophisticated destroyers, bombers and fighters to the region.
At least eight locations in the Philippines have been identified as possible sites where U.S. troops, planes and ships will be rotated through a series of military training and exercises, Philippine General Gregorio Catapang, military chief, told local television network ABS-CBN.
Four of the locations are on the main island of Luzon, where U.S. and Filipino soldiers usually hold exercises, two on the central Cebu island, and two more on the western island of Palawan, near the disputed Spratly China claims.
“Once the U.S. rebalance to Asia policy is in full swing, the Philippines expect the Americans to seek more access to military bases on Mindanao island and civilian airstrips on Luzon,” said a senior air force official familiar with the arrangements.
“The Americans are interested in Laoag airport and Batanes island, both in the northern part of Luzon,” he said, adding U.S. planes had landed on Batanes during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s.
The United States is also interested to return to its two former military bases in Subic and Clark, which they left in 1992 after the Philippines terminated basing agreement.
As to why the US Government could air with marked confidence they can pursue their intentions and implement their plans smoothly in this part of the globe owes to the splendid act of “salesmanship” exhibited by President Noynoy Aquino. The EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) he signed with US President Obama last year was like a writ of warranty for the US’s unhampered pursuance of its military plans. Needless to say, this is a big blow—an outright sell-out of Philippine sovereignty—a despicable display of puppetry to the US. It is simply unthinkable that a Filipino leader entrusted with the faith of the people could treacherously cast the destiny of the nation to the gutter of disastrous consequences. If Noynoy were clinically pronounced to be in a state of dementia, his act would have been excusable. But he is presumably sane. Isn’t he?
And if so, then we have every right to censure and denounce and condemn him for such senseless act of consigning our country to the mercy of US imperialist adventures. He sh ould be held unpardonably accountable for whatever dire consequences that will befall the Filipino nation in the event these frightening designs ofthe US pushed through.
Is he not cognizant of the harmful social impact t hat invariably accompanies the existence 0f US Military Bases? Doesn’t he know and realize the social evils that prevailed during those times when Subic and Clark were made to host the US Bases? He should have made serious reflections and see the magnitude of the social ills that could man ifest even if only through the micro lens of the Laude murder case. What kind of sensibility does hehave that he ignores the history of indignities and inhumanities and atrocities that attended the existence of the US Military Bases during those unwanted times!
It seems our remaining hope to avert this foreseeable disaster, apart from a manifest show of people power, is the Philippine Supreme Court. If the SC Justices would prove to be as senseless as President Noynoy, then the Philippines is doomed. But if they exhibit the honorable sway of statesmanship demanded of them as guardians of Philippine sovereignty and the highest interest of the people and as preservers of what is righteous and noble, then this nation can still hope to rise above the deplorable puppet status it has been dragged into by pseudo-leaders who have identified their interests with those of their imperialist masters.
It is high time to call on every Filipino, especially the Youth, to ponder on the ugly scenarios that are sure to manifest with the return of the US Military Bases. Eight locations are being eyed as possible sites for these bases — eight sites where prostitution dens will as sure as hell sprout and grow and proliferate — eight sites where countless Filipino women will be raped and murdered, where illegal drugs will be passed around as common as cigarettes and beverages, where sexually transmitted diseases will spread like wildfire, (where the dreaded “Vietnam rose” will again bloom on a revived Mactan airbase?)— eigh t sites where Filipinos will be mistaken for wild boars and shot by US soldiers, where all other forms of criminality will be spawned and grown to far-reaching consequences the Philippine authorities will be pathetically unable to contain.
And underlying all these is the disintegration of the moral and social fabric of Filipino society. But apart from these, the country shall become a veritable magnet of attacks by the enemies of the US. Then war not of our own making shall ensue and, God forbids, what shall reign on our lands are the ashes of destruction and the stench of death. And upon the stretches of devastation the victorious imperialist power shall rise in happy economic plunder, whereas the masses of the Filipino people will be fated to grovel in unimaginable misery and impoverishment. Of course, the puppet pseudo-leaders and their ilk will be spared from the agony of death and misery.
The Youth, aware of these grave threats should hearken to the call of the times and must take the nation’s destiny into their hands. The activists among them should redouble their efforts in arousing, mobilizing and organizing the masses of the people to build a society designed and shaped to the architecture of their cherished dreams—a society founded on the ideals of genuine democracy, social justice, and uncompromised sovereignty.
