Is Canada Funding Mercenaries in Mindanao?
Is Canada funding
mercenaries in Mindanao? If this is true, this is not the first time that
Canada has been accused of such. Private military companies earn about
$100 billion yearly and mercenary armies through the years have been
linked to areas where there is mineral wealth just like in Mindanao.
By Ted Alcuitas
Bulatlat
Vancouver,
B.C. -
Is Canada funding mercenaries
in Mindanao?
A small town in
Northern Cotabato in Mindanao could be using funds provided by the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Canada’s international
aid agency, to help pay for a mercenary army led by a former Canadian
soldier.
Magpet, a town of
with a population of 40,000, was featured recently in a six-part series in
The Ottawa Citizen and The Vancouver Sun titled Soldiers of
Fortune. The story focused on
Canada’s emerging role as one of
the world’s leading providers of mercenaries.
According to the
story, Magpet Mayor Efren Piñol, Sr. asked a Canadian identified only as
William for help after the town was raided by members of the New People’s
Army (NPA) on June 26. Without firing a single shot, the NPA disarmed the
town’s police force and carted away 24 high-powered rifles and handguns.
Piñol was reportedly
upset with the ineffectiveness of the military in protecting his town
during the NPA raid. He was forced to rely on a private army trained by
the Canadian. The 12 to 15-member private army was composed of his own
bodyguards and former Filipino soldiers.
According to the
Vancouver Sun article, the 38-year old William is no stranger to this
kind of work. He trained and led similar teams for Grayworks Security, a
Philippine company providing security to large corporations.
“How can a small town
afford to pay for a private army?” asked Barbara Waldern, chair of the
B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) and member of
the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) to the Philippines which
investigated human rights violations in August.
In 2002, CIDA gave
P4.8 million ($89,803.55, based on an exchange rate of P53.45 per US
dollar) to the Mindanao Program for Peace and Development (ProPeace) to
fund livelihood and enterprise development projects in areas like Magpet
designated as Special Zones for Peace and Development. CIDA’s George Shaw,
director-general for communications and Anne Germaine, first secretary for
the development cooperation section, attended the awarding ceremonies in
Davao
City. The two later went to Magpet to
inspect the projects.
This year, Pinol also
received P70, 000 ($1,309.63) from the Mt. Apo Foundation, Inc. (MAFI) and
another P60,000 ($1,122.54) from the Philippine National Oil Corp. for
education projects for children of indigenous people like the Lumads who
live within a 10-kilometer radius of Mt. Apo.
Political dynasty
In a statement after
the raid, the NPA branded Piñol as a “corrupt and coercive anti-people
warlord.” According to the NPA, the raid was made to punish Piñol because
of his “aggressive big agri-business expansion, ‘bagani’ armed
paramilitary formations and intensified military operations.”
The Magpet mayor is
the brother of North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol whose two other brothers
ran for mayoral posts but lost in the last May 2004 elections. Another
brother, Bernardo, Jr. is provincial administrator while Noli is chief
security. Ferdinand is executive assistant and Socrates is private
secretary to the governor. The governor caught the ire of a Catholic
bishop and even his own local police which both accused the governor of
abuse of power.
Canadian presence
While Canada has been
known in the world for its peacekeeping role, the country is becoming
known for being a source of guns for hire.
William is not the
only Canadian in the Philippines
working for so-called private military companies (PMCs). According to
The Citizen, a former Canadian Forces soldier and a retired Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer are training bodyguards in Subic
Bay. Private security contractor Andy Bradsell of Victoria, B.C.went to
the Philippines before moving to Iraq where he got killed last year.
Although political
dynasties and businesses in the Philippines have always used private
armies to protect their interests and preserve power, this is believed to
be the first time that Canada has been mentioned as participating in the
lucrative business.
According to the
Asia Times, PMCs earn an estimated $100 billion annually. In 1994, the
U.S. Department of Defense accounted for 12 of the 34 contracts for PMCs
worth $300 billion. The Asia Times said that the Philippines’
combined number of PMC employees outnumber the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Mining and mercenaries
Magpet, like most of
Mindanao, is rich with minerals and
rubber. Several transnational mining companies are involved in mining
operations there, including Vancouver-based Sur American Gold Corporation
which controls the rich T’boli (an indigenous peoples group) gold project
in Southern Cotabato.
Mercenary armies are
linked to mineral wealth and where there are gold, copper or diamonds, so
goes the mercenaries. In a paper titled “Mercenary Armies and Mineral
Wealth” which appeared in the Fall 1997 issue of Covert Action
Quarterly, environmental writer Pratap Chatterjee said that former
British commandoes were hired to work for private armies that provided
security for mining operations in countries like Papua New Guinea, Angola,
Columbia and Sierra Leone and the Congo.
In the article, Jeff
Moag of the Washington-based National Security News Service explained that
“military action, private or public to support mineral extraction
permeates the history of the Americas.” He said that the financing of the
mercenaries by the mineral industries amounts to nothing less than a new
colonialism and the men who enforce it, “like their predecessors are the
prostitutes of war who sell themselves to any company, faction, or
government with ready cash to pay.”
Ban mercenaries
A former General who
commanded United Nations troops during the Rwanda genocide said that
mercenaries should be banned, according to The Sun.
For his part, Sen.
Romeo Dallaire who wrote the book Shaking Hands with the Devil
feared that the lack of accountability and oversight for PMCs could lead
to abuses since governments are actually acknowledging that “these things
are capable and they’re acceptable.” Bulatlat
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2005 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.