Tags: Balikatan military exercises

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) decried the visit of a United States military chief and said Malacañang was lying through its teeth that it had nothing to do with increasing US military interference in the country. Late last weekend, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of…

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
“US troops have no business in Hacienda Luisita except to join the armed forces in stepping up the militarization and perpetuate a climate of fear as protesting farm workers persist in their demands for land,” Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan said, “We want the US troops out of Luisita and out of the Philippines.”

There may be more to the Balikatan military exercises which are set to be held in the Bicol Region this coming April than the much-vaunted “humanitarian missions”. The participation of an overwhelmingly large number of US troops indicates a high likelihood of combat operations during the exercises, said the spokesperson of a Bicol-based anti-Balikatan alliance.

Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, author of a Senate resolution calling for the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Evalyn Ursua, lawyer of Subic rape victim “Nicole”; Pacifico Agabin, dean of the Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law; Renato Reyes, Jr., Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) secretary-general; and Neri Javier Colmenares,…

There is still a month before the Balikatan exercises begin in Bicol, but already, preparations for these have claimed the life of a one-year-old girl and brought about US military intervention – with US troops manning checkpoints that have been set up across the region, most notably those in Pili, Camarines Sur and Matnog, Sorsogon.

BY BULATLAT The multi-sectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) has called on the Arroyo administration to to immediately regain custody of convicted rapist L/Cpl. Daniel Smith and to sack Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno. This call comes on the heels of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that…

BY BULATLAT Posted 3:20 p.m., September 16, 2008 DAVAO CITY — A militant group here protested the Arroyo administration’s support for the presence of US troops in Mindanao during the commemoration of the 17th anniversary of the Senate vote rejecting the extension of the RP-US Military Bases Treaty. The Southern Mindanao Region (SMR) chapter of…

Even though it was hailed by various sectors in society as historic and unprecedented, human rights advocates doubted if the human rights summit initiated by the Supreme Court would be enough to curb the festering problems of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA Bulatlat HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Vol. VII, No. 24, July 22-28,…

The record of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the U.S. government reveals that she will not likely support any legal action against five U.S. Marines who are accused of gang-raping a Filipino woman on Nov. 1. By Bulatlat The record of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)…