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Volume 2, Number 33              September 22 - 28,  2002            Quezon City, Philippines







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Reunion Slams U.S. War on Iraq, MLSA

Veterans of the 1991 anti-bases treaty struggle and young activists gathered at a reunion on Sept. 16 in U.P. Diliman to remember the historic dismantling of U.S. military bases in the country. All agreed that the struggle has not ended amid signs that the bases would be reinstalled and a new war looms in the Middle East.

By Gerry Albert-Corpuz
Contributor, Bulatlat.com

Anti-bases activists who remembered the historic rejection of the 1991Philippine-U.S. Bases Treaty 11 years ago found themselves uniting for a common cause against the proposed Mutual Logistics and Support Agreement (MLSA) and the looming war of the United States against Iraq.

This was the general sentiment among some 2,000 people who gathered at the Bahay ng Alumni inside the U.P. Diliman Campus in Quezon City to reflect and relive the Filipino people's rejection of the new bases treaty agreement on Sept. 16,1991.

Vice-President Teofisto Guingona, Jr., keynote speaker, delivered another scathing remark against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo over her proposal allowing the United States to use the country's airspace when its war against Iraq erupts into a full-blown crisis.

Guingona, who had been in disagreement with the president on the Balikatan war exercises and the controversial MLSA, said the Filipino people and the Macapagal-Arroyo government should reject the U.S.' culture of war and its “first-strike” policy against Iraq.

Instead of supporting the U.S. war on Iraq, Guingona urged Maacapagal-Arroyo to submit the international agreement that would lead to the establishment of the International Criminal Court of Justice to the Philippine Senate for concurrence.

The ICCJ, Guingona said, has been signed by 120 countries including the Philippines and the United States but it needs ratification by the Senate before it takes effect. If ratified by Senate, the international court will assume jurisdiction over perpetrators charged with committing war crimes, genocide, torture and other forms of unlawful death and destruction against civilian populace. (U.S. President George W. Bush threatened to withdraw the U.S. signature and its non-ratification if the treaty does not grant immunity to its armed forces.)  

MLSA to Senate

Bayan Muna party list Rep. Satur Ocampo, one of the organizers of the reunion, said he and his colleagues Crispin Beltran and Liza Maza are set to file a resolution in the House that will force Macapagal-Arroyo to reveal the content of the MLSA and have the basing pact discussed in the Senate and in public debates.

"Given its broad provisions, the MLSA is actually a treaty and should have the Senate's concurrence and not be treated as a mere executive agreement as Malacañang insisted," Ocampo said. He stressed that MLSA even went beyond the parameters of military activities defined in the 1951Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The militant solon insisted that "public interest requires full transparency and disclosure about any policy or agreement that directly affects the sovereignty and security of the country.

Former Sen. Wigberto " Bobby" Tañada backed calls for the Senate to assert its jurisdiction over the MLSA saying the "Philippine Senate should be given the Constitutional prerogative to lay down the final verdict on a new pact that appears dictated by what is convenient to Americans, not what is beneficial to the Filipino people.”

Tañada who in 1991 rallied the “Magnificent 12” in nailing down the bases treaty, said "the importance of Sept. 16, 1991 is fundamentally about self-respect and self determination and upholding the Constitutional tenets on sovereignty, national integrity, demilitarization and denuclearization."

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP-Peasant Movement of the Philippines) and the fisherfolk group Pamalakaya meanwhile cautioned anti-bases activists that the MLSA would be ready for signing next month in time for the next Balikatan exercises.

"The MLSA draft has not been shown to the public for thorough debates and discussions. President Arroyo and her bunch of U.S.-bred officials have been adopting a policy of secrecy to causing people to speculate and end up in endless guessing game," said KMP national chair Rafael Mariano.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap, on the other hand, said the Macapagal-Arroyo camp cannot keep the MLSA a secret forever and the Filipino people will find other ways of discovering this crime against national sovereignty. "These escape artists cannot run away from their responsibility and accountability to the people. Puppetry has a price," he warned.

Memories

"We were in third year high school when the Filipino people defied all odds and succeeded in convincing 12 senators to throw the lopsided agreement in the dustbin of history," said Apolinario Alvarez, national chair of the militant youth group Anakbayan.

The youth leader remembered how he and his activist peers organized their classmates and schoolmates for the anti-bases cause. "Patriotism was so high even among high school youths then, we were glad we became part of that glorious past against imperialist America," Alvarez reminisced.

KMP national staff Amy Avila smiled when she saw her picture sporting a clenched fist while singing Bayan Ko ( My Country) in the midst of heavy rain in front of the Old Senate Building (now National Museum) in Manila courtesy of Gabriela's photo exhibit displayed during the reunion proper.

"We were all wet and the rains did not stop from pouring heavy drops but I still managed to carry Bayan Ko's patriotic lyrics and tune," she said. Avila at that time was a member of the PUP-based League of Filipino Students and a senior tourism student.

Her friend and contemporary Cecille Ripalda, staff of Pamalakaya, also remembered where she was during that day. "I was there," pointing to Avila's direction. She noticed some familiar faces but she couldn't recall their names anymore. She said the PUP community delivered over 10,000-strong contingent to the Sept. 16 anti-US bases rally.

"We went around the school doing room-to-room campaigns to convince PUP students to go out and make their stand hours before the historic vote on proposed bases agreement," she remembered.

Hogwash

Meanwhile, Teddy Casiño, Bayan secretary general, dismissed Press Secretary Iganicio Bunye's claims that the government will not support the U.S. war on Iraq as hogwash. "President Arroyo's decision to evacuate Filipinos sends a louder message and it tells George Bush that he can bomb the hell out of Iraq as long as the Filipinos are out of the way," he added.

Casiño and other Bayan leaders led the march-rally from the Old Senate building to U.S. embassy in Manila to commemorate the Sept. 16 rejection of the bases treaty and denounce the U.S. pending war on Iraq.

"Eleven years after the Senate decision to abrogate the bases treaty, Mrs. Arroyo is slowly but surely bringing us back to the pre-Sept. 16, 1991 era of the U.S. military bases and blatant U.S. intervention in Philippine affairs," Casiño charged.

The Bayan leader said Malacanang Palace wanted to take part in an unjustified and unprovoked war against Iraq which the Philippines has cordial relations. "No to the MLSA, no to the war on Iraq, that is our message on this historic day," Casino stressed.

Scientist-activist Dr. Giovanni Tapang, chair of Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Sambayanan  ( Science and Technology for the People) said the United States is the biggest threat to world peace because of its gigantic cache of weapons of mass destruction.

Tapang castigated the Bush administration for claiming to be after Iraq's weapons-making capability. "The United States is the biggest and most profiteering maker and user of nuclear, chemical, biological and conventional weapons," he said.  Bulatlat.com 


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