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By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA - The problem with the grounded US Navy ship is still ongoing, and many questions as to why it had sailed there in the first place and what will happen to it and the reef are still unanswered, yet, here comes another US military...
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA – Tensions at the West Philippine Sea have been hitting the headlines since last year. President Benigno Aquino III has been blowing hot and cold over the issue: at times saber-rattling, begging the US to deploy more troops and...
How the empire changed its face, but not its nature By NICK TURSE Tomdispatch.com They looked like a gang of geriatric giants. Clad in smart casual attire -- dress shirts, sweaters, and jeans -- and incongruous blue hospital booties, they strode around “the world,”...
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
"As the U.S. begins to implement [the rebalance], Subic will play an important role because it is one of the important facilities that can service its presence in the Pacific." One would think that this quote is from a US military or government official, but this actually came from the executive director of the Philippine Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement.
By NAN LEVINSON, TomDispatch | News Analysis Truthout "PTSD is going to color everything you write," came the warning from a stepmother of a Marine, a woman who keeps track of such things. That was in 2005, when post-traumatic stress disorder, a.k.a. PTSD, wasn't...
While the Philippines is not gaining any but even losing much of its sovereignty with the increased US military presence in its shores and airspace, the US is gaining a lot.
By MARYA SALAMAT
The partnership between US warship builder and developer AMSEC Huntington Ingalls Industries and Hanjin Heavy Industries practically transforms the Hanjin shipyard in Subic Bay into a US military base. – Gabriela Rep Luzviminda Ilagan
Sidebar: Groups disprove Aquino’s selling points in allowing greater US military presence
By MARYA SALAMAT
Aside from allowing the US armed forces access to their former military bases, the Aquino government "allows the US FBI to interrogate prisoners in Camp Crame and use its custodial center in keeping foreign nationals it suspects of being “terrorists.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Although waning economically, the US still has the edge in military capabilities, which it may use to bully or declare war against countries resisting the assertion of its economic interests.
The Aquino government will again pin its hopes of armed forces modernization on US hand-me-downs, but the reality is that all these do not really help in strengthening Philippine sovereignty nor in asserting our claims over disputed territories.” – Renato Reyes,...
Daybreak rally, protest caravans greet US-RP Balikatan exercises (Photo by Maybelle Gormate)
By MARYA SALAMAT
Can their semantics circumvent the Constitutional ban on permanent stationing of US troops?
By MARYA SALAMAT
"One hundred and 13 years later the pattern of US plunder and exploitation of Filipino natural and human resources continues; so does the depressed condition of the Filipino people." -- KMU
By MARYA SALAMAT
Critics ask why the Philippine government is downgrading itself into a US pawn and a beggar for used, obsolete military hardware of the US government.
By MARYA SALAMAT
“It is as clear as day,” declared Terry Ridon, chairman of League of Filipino Students, “that it is only when US interests are served shall it extend assistance to its semi-colony.”
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“No matter how US Ambassador Harry Thomas tries to sugarcoat the Balikatan exercises, it is nothing but massive counterinsurgency operations by US troops in Philippine soil.” – League of Filipino Students
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.”
By Dateline Philippines MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) has granted the petition for writs of amparo and habeas data filed by the family of Gregan Cardeño, a translator for American forces in Mindanao, who was found dead last February 2 inside his room...
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.
Since losing a number of its major overseas bases in the 1990s, the US has had to make shifts in its basing strategy. It now increasingly relies on what its Department of Defense calls “Cooperative Security Locations” (CSLs), and there is now less emphasis on “Main...
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