By CPP Information Bureau
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today called on the Filipino people to oppose negotiations between the US and Philippine governments to set up special facilities for the rotational docking of American naval warships, unloading of US soldiers and basing of US spy planes. The plans are a component of the US drive to expand its military presence in the Philippines and in the Asia-Pacific region.
The CPP assailed such plans, saying they were “tantamount to setting up US military bases in outright contempt of the Filipino people’s long historic struggles to defend and uphold Philippine sovereignty and rid the country of foreign military bases.”
The matter is among the top concerns to be taken up in scheduled talks between the US and Philippine governments following the recently concluded Strategic Defense Dialogue (SDD) held January 26-28 in Washington D.C. The US government is awaiting proposals by the Aquino government on where to set up these special facilities.
The CPP urged the Filipino people to demand disclosure of the details of these negotiations, citing concerns on national sovereignty. “The Filipino people must demand an end to the secrecy that cloaks such military and security negotiations between the US and Philippine governments.”
“The Filipino people must resist the Aquino government’s subservience to the hegemonic aims of the US government to secure its military dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. The regime has served as a willing tool in accomodating the US strategy of maintaining permanent military presence in the country and making use of the Philippines as a base of its power-projection operations to contain China,” added the CPP.
The CPP called on the Filipino people to take firm hold of their aspirations for national sovereignty. “They must untiringly reiterate and struggle to oppose the permanent presence and basing of US military troops in the Philippines. They must push forward with their demand for the abrogation of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement.
They must vigorously demand the pullout of the 600-strong Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) of the US Pacific Command from its base inside the headquarters of the AFP’s Western Mindanao Command in Camp Navarro, Zamboanga City, the expanded presence of American soldiers in the Western Command in Palawan, the increasing rotational docking of American military warships in Manila and elsewhere and the participation of American military troops in counter-guerrilla operations in the Philippines.