US troops will stay if RP wants them
September 19, 2008
MANILA = American troops will remain in the southern Philippines as long as Manila wants their resence and the assistance that they provide, the US embassy said last week.
Embassy spokesperson Rebecca Thompson said the American troops are in the country at the invitation of the Philippine government to support and share information with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Thompson stressed the US troops would remain at the behest of the Philippine government.
The Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACOM) belied allegations that US troops are overstaying in Mindanao.
VFACOM executive director Edilberto Adan said the deployment and presence of American troops are necessary for the conduct of the joint military exercises and activities scheduled throughout the year.
Adan claimed there are several training schedules that would be held in Mindanao.
He explained the VFACOM submits, recommends and assesses the value of military exercises and activities mutually agreed upon by the two countries.
Four administration lawmakers led by Speaker Prospero Nograles justified the presence of US military forces in conflict areas in Mindanao, saying the Philippines needs a strong ally to combat terrorism.
“We need their (US) expertise and military equipment support against terrorists and lawless elements especially in conflict areas. Training and equipment both needed by our military and intelligence devises,” Nograles said.
Earlier, five militant lawmakers urged a congressional probe on the alleged intrusion of the US in the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and overstaying of American troops in Mindanao.
Bayan Muna party-list Representative Satur Ocampo filed House Resolution 754 calling for the investigations on the alleged involvement of the US government in the peace negotiations with the MILF.
Rep. Teddy Casiño, also of Bayan Muna, also filed House Resolution 772 questioning the constitutionality and legality’ of the ‘continuing presence’ of US soldiers in war zones. They also assailed the US government for using their involvement in GRP-MILF peace talks as a ‘vehicle’ for their economic agenda and establish a permanent military presence in the country.
They cited the US Institute of Peace, which obtained a $30 million funding from US Congres
ZAMBOANGA CITY -They are supposed to be only visitors, but after six years they are still around and some local officials are wondering whether they are already part of the Filipino family.
Officially, they are called the “visiting forces” but there has been no sign that American soldiers are leaving anytime soon and the officials are asking why the “visit” seems to have become a permanent deployment.
Vice Mayor Mannix Dalipe says the Arroyo administration and the Philippine military have to explain why American troops are still in Zamboanga City.
“No one is giving us answers,” Dalipe said in an interview the other day.
“Have we already thrown out to the waste basket our own sovereignty?” asked Edgar Araojo, a political science professor at the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU).
Araojo cited several US military facilities which he said had been established by the Americans in Zamboanga.
Among them, he said, were the headquarters of the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP) inside Camp Don Basilio Navarro, an air asset facility inside the Zamboanga City International
Airport, a docking area at the Majini Pier inside the Naval Forces Western Mindanao Command, and a training facility inside Camp Arturo Enrile in Malagutay village.
The United States in 1992 ended nearly a century of military presence in its former colony when it left the Subic naval base in Olongapo, Zambales, after the Philippine Senate refused to renew the two
countries’ military bases treaty.
In 2002, under the panoply of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), US special forces numbering about 200 men arrived in Zamboanga with a mission of training Philippine soldiers in fighting terrorists on nearby Basilan island.
Over the years, their numbers have swelled to 600, with some units focusing on what officials described as humanitarian missions.
In Manila, the chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, on Friday said the public should maintain a “healthy skepticism” about the presence of American soldiers in Mindanao.
She said the United States could easily reason out that its soldiers in the area were not combatants but part of humanitarian missions.
But Santiago said: “We need to monitor whether they are engaged in military exercises. We would have to entertain a healthy skepticism on the claim that they are (in Zamboanga) for purely humanitarian (reasons).”
*Mindanao strategic to US*
“If we are supplied with evidence to the contrary, then that would be a violation (of the VFA),” said Santiago, also a co-chair of the legislative oversight committee on the VFA.
Santiago acknowledged that Mindanao “is strategic to the United States’ military security.”
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, co-chair in the committee, said: “They are supposed to be conducting training (as part of the Balikatan Exercises).”
According to Biazon, the training is an annual exercise so that after a batch of American soldiers is done with their work, a new batch is brought in.
Similar Topics
We love to hear your comments...
Got something to say?
Advetisement
Subscribe to Receive our News
Advertisement
New Entries
Our News Categories
Readers Opinions
- ma.lyn iglesia nepa on GSIS forecloses 3,000 residences
- IL Voter on 1st Filam to win Illinois assembly seat
- lucy pabonita on Wish Ko Lang - Wish ng Isang Labandera
- Ligaya Severino on Wish Ko Lang - Huling Hiling
- Adelfa Bullo on Wish Ko Lang - Wish ng Isang Labandera
Archives
Partners
