Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Issue No. 40 November 18 - 24, 2001 Quezon City, Philippines |
Arroyo Hit on Secret Basing Deal with Bush Expect more protests late this week once President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo flies back to Manila after a brief visit in Mexico. BY
BULATLAT.COM
Is
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reviving a proposed deal with the
United States which former president Fidel V. Ramos failed to clinch early
1990s? This
question is being raised in the light of reports that Arroyo, who is visiting
Washington – her ninth in her 10 months of presidency – will return to the
Philippines with a secret agreement she will forge with United States President
George Bush. The
secret deal, the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan – New Patriotic
Alliance) said Saturday citing reports, is a rehash of the old Acquisition and
Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) earlier rejected by the Filipino people into a
“Mutual Logistics and Support Agreement (MLSA).” ACSA would revived
extraterritorial rights of American forces in the Philippines – the same
rights they had enjoyed for almost a century until their former airforce and
naval bases were withdrawn following the Philippine Senate rejection of a
proposed bases renewal treaty in 1991. The
agreement will be finalized in a series of meetings the Philippine president
will hold with US Vice President Dick Cheney and officials of the State
Department and Pentagon, Bayan spokesperson Renato Reyes Jr. said. If
true, the new agreement will practically give back basing rights to US military
forces in exchange for military aid as well as new loans expected to be awarded
by the World Bank this coming week. “Fifty
years of the unlamented Mutual Defense Treaty has produced a Philippine defense
establishment that is abusive, corrupt and highly dependent on US military
advice, forces and materiel,” Reyes said. “How the return of the bases would
help solve the situation, only puppets like Arroyo and (Defense Secretary) Gen.
Angelo Reyes would know.” Reports
also indicated that Arroyo has been advised by Philippine defense officials –
whom leftist groups in the country said follow orders from Washington – to
reiterate her government’s support for Bush’s anti-terrorism campaign and to
revitalize the two countries’ “special relations” along this call. Bush,
in turn, is expected to support the Arroyo presidency including a renewed
military offensive against Marxist and Muslim guerrillas. Already,
Arroyo – even without being asked by Pentagon officials – has allowed the
intervention of American “military advisers” in her military offensives
against the Abu Sayyaf extremists in southern Philippines. Among the “military
advisers” were agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which has
received a blanket authority from Bush to assassinate “suspected terrorist
leaders.” Arroyo
has also been reported to have sought increased Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) presence in the country. “Arroyo
should have raised the issue of US military toxics (in its former military bases
in the Philippines) but she did not,” Reyes said. “She could have demanded
immediate clean-up of the old bases, the rehabilitation of areas affected by US
military toxics and compensation for children and other persons who have long
suffered from an issue that the US has consistently rejected. But she did
not.” Reyes
demanded that details of the secret basing agreement be made public. “Jurassic
defense arrangements such as this would surely die when exposed to patriotic
elements,” he said. The
Bayan leader said that protests would hound Arroyo during her entire trip
especially in New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. Earlier,
200 protesters picketed a San Francisco hotel where Arroyo spoke. Allied
organizations of Bayan International and Migrante International have vowed to
“hound” the President with protests in New York, Washington DC and Los
Angeles. Bigger protests will meet the president when she flies back to Manila after a brief visit in Mexico late this week. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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