Edilberto Adan, chairman of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA Commission), has denied reports that these US troops are availing of prostitution “services” every night.

“The Magayon festival has brought tourists, including a number of Caucasians, to Legazpi who are staying in the same place where US soldiers stay,” Adan said in an April 3 press statement. “This may be a case of mistaken identity.”

Bisuña, however, said this cannot be the case. She said that in fact, tourists have been unable to stay in Albay to enjoy the Magayon Festival due to the unexpected arrival of US soldiers in the province’s hotels.

“These US troops are making a negative image of Albayanas and they are a nuisance to Bicolanos and tourists,” Bisuña said. “Even the head of the Tourism Committee of the Province of Albay, Councilor Glenda Bongao, is complaining that because of the US troops booking all hotels here, the legitimate tourists for the Magayon Festival could not go to the month-long event.”

Bisuña expressed fears that the Balikatan military exercises would adversely impact on Bicol’s local economy.

“The Balikatan exercises would definitely have a very negative impact on the festival as well as the other income generating activities of the province (aimed at alleviating) the effects of the global economic crisis on Bicolanos,” she said. “The Balikatan exercises would be a tourism nightmare for the entire Bicol region.”

The estimated 6,000 US troops are joined by some 2,500 Filipino soldiers in this year’s Balikatan exercises, according to Maj. Ramon Zagala, deputy spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Zagala also said the US troops are bringing in several warships and aircraft, including F-16 fighter planes.

Zagala’s statements, which he made in an interview with the international news service Agence France Presse in early February, contradicts a Jan. 29 official press release by the AFP, in which it is stated that the Balikatan exercises to be held in the Bicol Region would focus on “disaster rehabilitation and rural development projects…(which) will materialize through the Engineering Civic Action Program (ENCAP) and Medical Action Program (MEDCAP) activities..”

Bicol, one of the country’s poorest regions, is listed among the “priority areas” in the government’s counter-“insurgency” campaign.

The Philippine Senate’s concurrence in the RP-US Visiting Forces in 1999, and then-President Joseph Estrada’s approval of it that same year, paved the way for the regular Balikatan military exercises which began in 2002.(Bulatlat.com)

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