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Militants Hit Deployment of More U.S. Troops, Basing Agenda
‘Statue of Puppetry’ leads Bayan's alternative Independence Day rites

Malacanang's grand celebration of Independence Day does not reflect the essence of the Filipino people's victorious conquest of Spanish colonial forces, their patriotic war against U.S. imperialist troops in the 1900s and the Japanese forces during the Second World War.

By GERRY ALBERT-CORPUZ
Bulatlat.com

Militant groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and party-list Bayan Muna paraded the "Statue of Puppetry' last June 12 in Manila to showcase President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's “first-rate puppetry and subservience to the United States.”

The statue presented Macapagal-Arroyo in a monstrous version of the famous Statue of Liberty in protest of her plan to allow deployment of more U.S. troops and possible basing rights for American military forces in the Philippines.

Other floats displayed during Bayan's alternative independence day rites included Gabriela's jeep-load of “weapons of mass destruction” (WMDs), Agham and Kalikasan's toxic float, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas' delivery jeep of cheap imported products, Pamalakaya's MV Kalayaan boat and KMU's anti-oil cartel vehicle all pointing to U.S. and the Macapagal-Arroyo government as the main culprits behind the present economic and political woes afflicting millions of Filipino people.

Youth and teachers groups belonging to Anakbayan and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), meanwhile, had students dressed as robots to show their displeasure at the Millennium Curriculum which the groups said were patterned after the imperialist line of thinking.

Joining the “float parade against U.S. imperialism and GMA's puppetry” were some 2,000 activists including members of anti-Balikatan groups like the church-led Cry Out! and Promotion of Church for People's Response (PCPR), Health Alliance for Democracy, Courage, First Quarter Storm Movement, Karapatan, Selda, Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace, Moro Christian People's Alliance and Bayan-NCR.

Tied to U.S. neo-colonial agenda

Bayan secretary-general Teddy Casiño said after 104 years of Philippine independence from the Spanish colonial forces, the government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are still tied to U.S. neo-colonial economic and political agenda in the Philippines.

"President Macapagal-Arroyo and her generals' insistence that more American troops are required to crush the Abu Sayyaf betrays the fact that after 104 years of Philippine independence, the government and the AFP are still hopelessly dependent on the United States of America", Casiño stressed.

Casiño said Macapagal-Arroyo and the Armed Forces wanted to cover up the Balikatan-02-1's failure in order to justify future deployment of U.S. troops in the country. He said the impending approval of the RP-U.S. Mutual Logistics and Support Agreement (MLSA) would provide the legal basis for such a plan.

Tourism gimmick

Calling Malacañang’s Independence Day rites a sham, the Bayan secretary-general said the government's own celebrations have been reduced to nothing more than a “tourism gimmick and a pathetic display of military incompetence.”

The same was echoed by militant fisherfolk group Pamalakaya. "Gloria is plastic and her hypocrisy is limitless. Independence only exists in GMA's corrupted mind and line of thinking," the group said adding that the U.S. and local oligarchs like Macapagal-Arroyo had long betrayed the country's independence from Spanish colonial forces.

"What the U.S. wants, the U.S. gets. Is that independence? No, its first-class puppetry and choice-cut betrayal of the Filipino people," Pamalakaya added.

The militant group wished the Filipino people to celebrate next year's Independence Day with Macapagal-Arroyo totally out of Malacañang and the U.S. military colonial forces deported straight to the United States.

Manolito Serrano, Pamalakaya secretary general said: "Gloria wants a major cover up of her regime's pro-U.S. bias and anti-Filipino policies by saturating the people with this kind of glossy and metaphysical depiction of Independence Day. Ms Macapagal-Arroyo is an oppressor and the class enemy of the poor, a certified U.S. puppet and a top-notch militarist rolled into one.

"Palace's super roadshow presentation is more of a PR blitz to further advance U.S. economic and political subjugation of the Philippines," he said.

Peasant activists from KMP, on the other hand, challenged the Philippine Senate to abrogate the World Trade Organization as well as the immediate pullout of U.S. troops in the country. "We ask the Senate to set aside partisan politics and score a giant kill against the WTO and the U.S. military presence in the country," they said.

Increased deficit

KMP national chair Rafael Mariano said the country's membership in the WTO for the past six years has only led to an increased deficit running into billions of dollars, massive unemployment and further jeopardized the food security of the people. The U.S.-led WTO was responsible for the $3.5 billion trade deficit in agriculture the country had incurred since trading started under WTO in 1995, he said.

“The WTO is U.S. tool for economic aggression and corporate exploitation that has built millstones around the neck of the Filipino people and only promises to sink us further into the mire of starvation, poverty and debt," the peasant leader asserted.

A Palace press release revealed the government was to mobilize more than 9,000 government employees with more than 40 floats and 40 bands for public viewing on Independence Day. The celebration likewise called for a three-hour civic-military parade said to be one of the biggest in the history of Independence Day celebrations in the country. For the celebration, Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the release of P10 million pesos or roughly $200,000.

In 1962, her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, changed the Independence Day from July 4 to June 12. But Macapagal made a sham out of his own decree as he thereafter led the celebration of July 4, dubbed Philippine-American Friendship Day, with more pomp and pageantry, accounts showed. July 4 is America’s own freedom day.

Pamalakaya said Malacanang's grand celebration of Independence Day further cannibalized the real essence of Filipino people's victorious conquest of Spanish colonial forces, their patriotic war against U.S. imperialist troops in the 1900s and the Japanese occupational forces during the Second World War. Bulatlat.com

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