10 Years of VFA Worsened Abuse of Filipino Women, Children by US Troops — Gabriela

Smith was the convicted rapist of Nicole. He was never imprisoned in the country’s jails – he was spirited out by the US government in the dead of the night, with the assistance of the Philippine foreign affairs and justice departments, and “held” instead at the US embassy while awaiting his eventual acquittal. After Nicole, the next rape victim by a US serviceman to come out was Vanessa.

On the 10th year of the VFA, Gabriela reiterated its plea for the agreement’s abrogation. “The presence of US troops in Philippine territory is clearly unconstitutional and violative of our country’s sovereignty,” officials of Gabriela said at a recent Senate committee hearing on VFA.

Gabriela is opposed to the presence of US troops in the country particularly because of its high social cost to women and children.

Since the VFA was approved in 1999, several violations of US soldiers have been reported. Aside from the reported rape cases, Gabriela cited the shooting of Buyong-buyong Isnijal by American soldier Reggie Lane in Basilan as early as 2002 and the closing of the Panamao District Hospital in Sulu allegedly ordered by US soldiers led by a Master Sergeant Ron Berg in 2007.

Other Abuses

Before Nicole and Vanessa, there were countless other abused or prostituted Filipino women, some of whom were initiated into the sex trade as early as when they were children. Some were just plainly taken advantage of, such as 12-year-old Rosario Baluyot who died from infections due to a bottle inserted reportedly by a US serviceman into her vagina.

Gabriela says the VFA has done nothing but abuse more women and children. (Photo by Ayi Muallam / bulatlat.com)

In the former Clark military airbase, the surrounding streets lined with bars had housed brothels that specialized in offering pre-pubescent girls.

In Subic, some Olongapo City bars had developed a color-coded approach to catering to their US servicemen clients – there were bars for blacks, bars for whites, bars where the two could mix, and bars where even Filipino males can enter as clients and not just as part of the staff or music performers. Bar operators had reportedly come up with this color-coded distinction to lessen racial troubles between the resting and recreating servicemen.

At the time when the US had clearly stated permanent military bases in the Philippines, it was also not unusual in Angeles City or Olongapo City to see children performing suggestive dance routines on stage for the US servicemen’s entertainment.

These tragic facts involving abused and prostituted women and children fueled some of the reasons why the US military bases were booted out in 1991. But with the VFA, the seeming permanence of the “visitors” and their facilities and the resulting growth of prostitution in areas of Balikatan exercises, these tragic facts seem bound to persist.

Some women residents of Subic and Angeles had complained that men, especially the US troops, often no longer made distinctions between ordinary local women and prostituted women.

10 Years Is Too Much

“In the last 10 years of the VFA, given the number of American soldiers in the country which reached up to 6,000, we can only surmise the number of women and children victimized, abused and exploited along the way. Ten years is not just enough — it is too much,” de Jesus said.

As what the Philippine Senate did in 1991, when they decided in behalf of the Filipino people and terminated the US-RP Military Bases Agreement, Gabriela now hopes for “a similar display of patriotism, a similar display of concern for Filipino women and children.” They want the Senate to abrogate the VFA. (Bulatlat.com)