The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement which was passed as an executive agreement, in November 2002, to avert protests allows the U.S. to construct storage and repair facilities and use of the country’s ports, training ranges, and other facilities to support its wars of aggression not only in Southeast Asia but the whole of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Training and Interoperability

Using local proxy armies has always been part of the strategy of the U.S. But in order to project U.S. military hegemony and extend its presence all around the globe, including areas where U.S. forces did not traditionally operate, it is relying more on its proxy forces or puppet armies.

The 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) projects that the U.S. should be able to conduct two simultaneous conventional wars while maintaining small forward deployed forces conducting special forces operations. These two types of operations are defined as direct (visible) and indirect (clandestine) approaches. With the former, the U.S. will work with multinational forces. With clandestine operations, the U.S. will work with puppet armies. According to the QDR, “Building and leveraging partner capacity will be an absolutely essential part of this approach and the employment of surrogates will be a necessary method for achieving many goals.” Thus, the emphasis on training and joint exercises.

And the U.S. has not chosen a better surrogate army in the region than the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951, the Philippine government sent AFP troops to fight in Korea and in Vietnam. This agreement also justifies Philippine involvement in Iraq where it sent a small contingent.

Through the Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group, the U.S. is able to control the AFP by providing it with training, equipment, weapons, and supplies. And with the creation of the Defense Policy Board in 2002, the U.S. would control the policies and decisions of the Philippine Department of National Defense, which has command over the AFP. Another mechanism called the Security Engagement Board was created in March 24, 2006 purportedly to serve as the mechanism for consultation and planning of measures and arrangements focused on addressing non-traditional security concerns such as international terrorism, transnational crime, maritime safety and security, natural and man-made disasters, and the threat of a pandemic outbreak that arise from non-state actors and transcend national borders.

The AFP is currently implementing a five-year Philippine Defense Reform (PDR) program under the supervision of the U.S. Pacific Command. This program was an offshoot of a Joint Defense Assessment conducted by U.S. defense “experts” that looked into the capabilities of the AFP in combating “terrorism.” It was a three-year assessment that was completed in 2003. This program is aimed at enhancing the capabilities of the AFP in line with the U.S. thrust of strengthening its surrogate armies. More importantly, with “significant American involvement in monitoring its implementation,”[19] the PDR gave the U.S. strategic and tactical control over the planning and operations of the AFP.

The joint exercises and other trainings conducted by the U.S. are also aimed at improving the capacity of the U.S. and Philippine armed forces to conduct joint operations under the former’s command and direction; improve the capability of the AFP in waging wars against the perceived enemies of the U.S. and its local puppets; and contribute to the combat experience of U.S. troops, another objective of the 2006 QDR.

Right from the start of the U.S. “global war on terror” and the planning for Balikatan 2002, President Bush had already offered that U.S. troops be sent for combat patrols in Mindanao. If not for the opposition of people’s organizations and former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, the U.S. would have had its way. But an international fact finding mission conducted in Basilan in 2002 confirmed earlier reports that U.S. troops were engaged in a fire fight with Abu Sayyaf forces in June. The mission report revealed that an American soldier in a raiding unit with a specific combat mission to arrest an Abu Sayyaf suspect had shot that suspect in the leg.

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