DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / Daily Tribune / April 28, 2014
Barack Obama arrives to firm up his country’s purported commitment to “defend” the Philippines from China. But who defends the Philippines from the US--the imperial power that grabbed the Filipinos’ victory over long-time colonizer Spain; the one that launched the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902 and killed up to a million Filipinos?
Half-a-century of US colonialism suppressed what should have been the first modern democracy and economy in Southeast Asia. Then, World War II saw the US use Filipino soldiers and civilians as cannon fodder, before it subjected the country to post-war neocolonial exploitation with parity rights and US military bases for its wars in Asia.
To this day, the US continues to suppress the country’s industrial aspirations while it ruthlessly conducts massive wealth extraction through debt, taxes, and privatization-price gouging of public services.
Obama’s offer of protection to Filipinos from China’s supposed aggression over the two countries’ maritime territorial disputes comes with many unexplainable requests. For example, while the disputed areas such as the Kalayaan Group of Islands or the Scarborough Shoal and Ayungin Reef are hundreds of kilometers out to sea from Luzon, and even farther from Visayas and Mindanao, why is the US requiring access to and use of the almost 50 Philippine military bases and facilities spread across the entire archipelago from Aparri to Jolo? Are the Chinese, in pursuing their claim over the China Seas, going to invade the Philippines, all the way to Jolo?
I asked a retired Filipino army general about this and his answer was “That’s not for China; they are for the anti-terror war.” I then countered, “But the terrorist Abu Sayyaf, Al Qaeda, and Jemaah Islamiya are in pockets in Mindanao. What does Fort del Pilar in Baguio or Camp Nakar in Quezon or Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu have to do with them?” There was no answer. I then suggested one: “Some of these bases, like Camp Buayan in General Santos, are vital for the protection of US military facilities in that area.” He agreed--which led to the question: Is US access to and use of all these Filipino military bases for the protection and defense of Philippine interests or those of the US? He had to agree; it is for the protection of US interests. But what about the bases in Legazpi, (such as Arasain Naval Station) or in Guimaras (such as Palencia Naval Station), which are far from Scarborough or the terrorists in Basilan, why should the US need access to them?
While Filipinos are all eyes on Obama’s visit and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) to defend against alleged Chinese violations into Philippine maritime territories, as well as its EEC (Exclusive Economic Zone) as claimed under UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), the US is actually and deliberately sailing through Philippine archipelagic and internal waters, which are part of its undisputed sovereign territory, on a regular basis in what the US officially declares as its “operational challenge” to the Philippines’ claim over these. Manila Times columnist Ricardo Saludo wrote, “By its official admission, the American military has… deliberately violated Philippine internal waters… nearly 20 times last year… within our recognized territorial baselines (which are) disputed by the US…”
We researched further and found a US Department of National Defense report entitled “US Navy Challenges to Excessive (UNCLOS) Maritime Claims, FY 1993 to 2010” that detailed 17 years of deliberate incursions into Philippine archipelagic waters to defy Philippine claims of sovereignty over such internal waters and the “multiple excessive claims (of the Philippines overs its) “excessive straight or archipelagic baselines,” as well as its “restrictions on access to international strait or archipelagic waters.” The grounding of the USS Guardian damaging the Tubbataha Reef in June 2013 was one of these “operational challenges.” With this kind of “friend” swearing to defend the Philippines from invaders but actually invading it with impunity, why is China being made the enemy?
The Philippines wants to defend against China’s claims over what it now calls the West Philippine Sea where oil and natural gas are waiting to be tapped. But China has long advocated the principle of joint exploration and development, on a 50/50 sharing basis. Philippine authorities, in contrast, want it all and would prefer to settle the matter at the UN tribunal, despite China’s offer.
However, as the Philippines waits in vain for a settlement that will never come (as China is not participating), the US and Britain are already sucking Philippine natural gas dry at the Malampaya on the basis of a 95 percent to 5 percent scheme (where investment and taxes are deducted from the Philippines’ 10-percent share and defense purchases from the US and its allies also taken from it). When the US pressured BS Aquino to scuttle the China-Vietnam-Philippines joint marine seismic survey, Filipinos lost out on a chance to know the true wealth of their seas--which the US does.
So again we ask: Why does the US want access to and use of all Philippine military bases and facilities? Isn’t it like the Big Bad Wolf with his big eyes and teeth telling Little Red Riding Hood, “The better to see and eat you my dear”? Certainly, with the US as friend, who needs enemies?
Despite this, Filipinos still view the US more favorably than Americans themselves, according to a 2013 Pew Research poll. With such unmatched gullibility, who’s to save the Filipinos from themselves now? (Our next column: “The Obamanable TPP”).
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