President Rodrigo Duterte had made recent statements that suggested his move for the possible withdrawal of US Special Forces in the resource-rich region of Mindanao.
He later explained that there is a time that he would order the withdrawal of US Special Forces for the sake of his government’s formal peace negotiations with the MNLF and the MILF.
When pressed hard on the supposedly continuing spate of extra-judicial executions of suspected drug personalities in the government’s present ‘war’ against illegal drug operations, President Duterte has repeatedly pointed out the hypocrisy of the US government in showing concern regarding these killings by recalling the horrific Balangiga and Bud Dajo massacres during the Philippine-American War.
The president had talked sense to his political critics and to the US that he is the president of a free and sovereign nation and that the Filipino people are his real masters. He also stated plainly and clearly, arriving from his recent working visit to Indonesia, that the Philippines would forge an independent foreign policy.
NDFP chief political consultant and CPP founding Chairman Jose Maria Sison shares his thoughts on the fall-out from a possible withdrawal of US Special Forces in Mindanao and on the basic essence of an independent foreign policy for the Philippines in this timely write-up.
“I welcome President Duterte’s call for the withdrawal of US Special Forces. These have been useless. They have not stopped the terrorist acts of the Abu Sayyaf like bombings and kidnappings. Most important of all, they should be removed because they violate Philippine national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” surmised Prof. Sison.
According to him, “If President Duterte is truly for an independent foreign policy, he must abrogate all the unequal treaties and agreements like the Mutual Defense Agreement, MLSA, the VFA and EDCA.”
The MLSA is the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement signed in 2002 that set forth the US-RP Balikatan exercises. The VFA is the Visiting Forces Agreement, ironically approved 8 years after the Philippine Senate rejected the retention and extension of US bases in the country or the abrogation of the US-RP Military Bases Agreement (MBA). The VFA provided for temporary basing of US soldiers in the Philippines for the sake of joint military exercises. It was signed in 1999 under the presidency of Joseph Estrada. The EDCA is the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, signed in the presidency of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III during the 2014 visit of US President Barrack Obama to the Philippines, that is actually worse than the former MBA and the VFA as it provides for US troops to base in any Philippine military facility in unrestricted number and length of stay, with the Philippine government—or precisely, the Filipino people—paying for the expenses of these arrangements.
“I hope that he is really for the pull-out of the of the US Special Forces in Mindanao and elsewhere in the Philippines in the spirit of upholding and defending Philippine national sovereignty and territorial integrity,”Prof. Sison said.
“He should act as a truly patriotic leader and disprove the claim of some people that he made only a spur of the moment statement against the gleeful wish of the yellows that Obama would lecture him on human rights,” Prof. Sison added.
Prof. Sison pointed out that US has its own selfish strategic interests in being able to control Mindanao as a key point for hegemony over the entire Philippines.
According to him, “It [US] is after GOD in Mindanao.”
GOD stands for gold, oil and deuterium.
He reiterated that the US created the Abu Sayyaf in 1991, first to counter the MNLF and later on, to use it as pretext for US military presence perpetually in the name of combating terrorism.
Prof. Sison said that EDCA brings back the US military bases under the guise of being “allowed areas” within Philippine military camps and reservations.
According to him, “It is a violation of the constitutional ban on foreign military bases, troops and weapons of mass destruction. The so-called allowed areas for the US military forces are off limits to Philippine authorities. They are US military enclaves beyond the control of their Filipino puppets. “
He stressed out that the EDCA is a mere executive agreement and can be abrogated by President Duterte if he so desires to abrogate it in the interest of the Filipino people.
Prof. Sison elaborated that the EDCA, the VFA and MDT violate the sovereignty and dignity of the Filipino people.
According to him, “They ensure US neocolonial domination over the Philippines. They put the Philippines in the crosshairs of the enemies of the US. Such enemies are obliged to attack the Philippines because of the US military bases that serve as launching pads of US aggression.”
He discussed that the nationalist or anti-imperialist movement in the Philippines clamors for an end to US military presence and for an independent foreign policy because it seeks to uphold national sovereignty, to achieve national liberation and to keep high our national dignity.
He explained that we have to have full national independence to enjoy our democratic rights and achieve social justice and economic development through national industrialization and land reform.
Prof. Sison said that the nationalist or anti-imperialist movement has continued to awake the people because it expresses the sovereign will and aspirations of the people.
“What is essential in forging an independent foreign policy is to abrogate the unequal military and economic treaties, agreements and arrangements which make the country subservient to the US and its imperialist allies and which keep the country underdeveloped and impoverished because the people are exploited by the foreign monopoly firms, the big compradors, landlords and corrupt bureaucrats,” he seriously pointed out on the merits of an independent foreign policy for a free and sovereign nation like the Philippines.
He finally said that the Filipino people must reinvigorate the people’s struggle for national and social liberation as we celebrate the following historic milestones—the 151st birth anniversary of the quintessential nationalist General Miguel Malvar (September 27) and the 25th anniversary of the Filipino people’s rejection of US military bases in the Philippines (September 16). (Read Groups laud Duterte’s plan for independent foreign policy)
