1-30-06, 8:40 am

Phlippine Communist Party (PKP-1930) Condemns New Series of U.S. War Games in the Philippines

The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930, the Philippine Communist Party) condemns the new series of U.S. war games in the Philippines, dubbed as Balikatan ('shoulder-to-shoulder') 2006 Exercises, which were due to start this week. The first round of joint US-Philippine war games, a month-long small-unit field training exercise, is to be held starting 17 January 2006 in and around Camp Lucero, the base of the Philippine Army's 602nd Infantry Brigade in Carmen town, North Cotabato province, in the southern island of Mindanao. The last time that war games were conducted by US forces with their Filipino counterparts in this town was in July 2004.

Next month, from February 19 to March 5, similar war games are to be conducted in the vicinity of Jolo, Sulu, as well as in other parts of the country – at the former US naval base in Olongapo, Zambales province; the former US air base at Clark Field in Pampanga province; the former US military stations in Cavite, Cebu and Zamboanga provinces; and at the Philippine Army base at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija province. In all, around 5,500 US soldiers will be involved in these joint war games up to March.

It is expected that these war games will again result in injuries and even casualties, either among participants (as in a previous amphibious landing operation, and in a previous Chinook helicopter flight), or among civilians in the area. Aside from the attendant damage to the local environment, there is also a great danger of abuse upon the local communities by US forces participating in these war games.

In The Midst of The Rape Case Controversy It is particularly reprehensible for the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to allow this new round of US military exercises amid the raging controversy concerning the US denial of the Philippine request for custody over the US marines who have been charged with the rape of a 22-year-old Filipina. The victim, who hails from the southern city of Zamboanga, was vacationing in Olongapo City (the site of the former US naval base) when she was gang-raped last November 1st by a group of 6 US marines. Significantly, the 6 US marines were then on their last night prowl in town, and were about to sail home to their military base in Japan after participating in the US war games in the area.

Only 4 of the US marines have so far been charged with rape (Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Dominic Duplantis and Keith Silkwood, and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier). The US denial of the request for Philippine custody over the accused has led many sectors to call for the immediate abrogation of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)! under which these joint military exercises are being conducted. The VFA has become the justification for the USA to establish a semi-continuous military presence in the Philippines, even without a permanent basing arrangement.

The Focus On Mindanao

This will be the first time in several decades that US forces will conduct war games in Sulu province. However, US soldiers have been conducting intelligence-gathering surveys or 'assessments' in at least 5 towns of Sulu province (in Jolo, Panamao, Indanan, Parang and Maimbung) since April of last year. In the nearby Zamboanga and Basilan provinces, US war games were held in 2001. The southern islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi are known haunts of Muslim extremists such as the 'Abu Sayyaf' group which have carried out bombings, kidnappings and other attacks against Christians and foreigners in the Philippines as well as in neighboring parts of Malaysia.

Members of the Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim fundamentalist groups recruited in the southern islands of Mindanao were trained in Pakistan and infiltrated into Afghanistan in the late 1980s, as part of the US war against the then national-democratic government led by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). These Filipino extremists became linked to the CIA-organized Al-Qaeda terrorist network then operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The March 5 culmination of the US war games in Sulu will coincide with the centennial of the start of the attack by US soldiers on Bud Dajo, an extict volcano in Sulu. At least 600 men, women and children of the indigenous Moslem Tausug tribe were pursued and trapped in the crater of this volcano, were made targets by US soldiers firing from safe positions on the heights above, and massacred in just one and a half days. Less than 20 US soldiers died in that one-sided 'battle', while only 2 of the trapped indigenous Filipinos survived the US massacre.

The new US interest in having war games in the Autonomous Region of Moslem Mindanao (which region US embassy officials have called the 'mecca of terrorism' and a breeding ground for terrorists), is related to the increased activity of transnational corporations prospecting for offshore oil deposits and for inland mineral resources in this region. With the main Moslem secessionist groups (the Moro National Liberation Front based in the Zamboanga-Sulu area, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front based in the Maguindanao-Cotabato area) apparently posing no threat to US forces in Mindanao, the US forces are more concerned with stopping the terrorist activities of the small extremist groups that they used to train in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A Prelude For Permanent Basing Arrangements

US concern with Islamic fundamentalism in the region is another factor in the growing US military presence in Mindanao, which could again be used as a launching pad for US military interventions in the region. It may be recalled that in 1956, President Sukarno of Indonesia enraged the US imperialists by hosting the first Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung, which conference gave later birth to the Non-Aligned Movement. To topple Sukarno, the CIA launched the so-called 'Black Colonels' Revolt' in 1958. As part of that coup attempt, unmarked US Air Force planes from Clark Air Base in the Philippines were used to re-supply the coup leaders, and to bomb the Sukarno strongholds. Fortunately for Sukarno at that time, that CIA-instigated coup attempt failed, as a US Air Force B-26 plane was shot down over Ambon during a bombing run. The CIA pilot, Allen Pope, was captured and admitted to having come from Clark Air Base, and to having been refueled at the then US-controlled Sanga-Sanga airfield in Tawi-Tawi Island at the southwestern tip of Mindanao. A renewed US military presence in Mindanao is not only a denigration of Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also poses a threat to the independence of neighboring countries.

In allowing the resumption of US war games in our country, and in proposing changes to the Constitution (in order to again allow US military bases in the Philippines, as well as to grant greater rights for US and other transnational corporations here), Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants to further ingratiate herself to the Bush administration, in order to ensure continued US support for her illegitimate hold on power. But she can no longer further deceive the Filipino people. The struggle against the US military presence in our country, and against the neo-colonial order in general, is linked with the struggle to oust the illegitimate regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930) will exert every effort to mobilize the Filipino masses for the stepping up and success of these struggles.



Central Committee PARTIDO KOMUNISTA NG PILIPINAS (PKP-1930) (Philippine Communist Party) 20 January 2006