Central Committee
Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the governments of the US and China for the continuing build-up of their military forces in the South China Sea within the territorial waters and exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. Increasing presence of foreign military forces in these areas are in outright violation of Philippine territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The CPP further condemns the security and defense officials of the US and China governments for their saber-rattling and exchange of threats to escalate armed confrontations over the past few days. The Filipino people and the international community of peace-loving peoples must denounce both China and the US for raising the war temperature by drum-beating and expanding their military presence in the South China Sea (also referred to as the West Philippine Sea).
The CPP calls on the Filipino people to stand on their own and oppose both China and the US for their efforts to establish a foothold in Philippine territorial waters and gain exclusive control of the Philippine sea trade route in order to use this as economic and political leverage in their increasing antagonisms.
The CPP calls on the Filipino people to stand against increasing incursions by the Chinese military in Philippine territorial waters and land formations in the South China Sea. China’s large-scale land reclamation and construction of airstrips, docks and other military facilities in the Spratly islands are in outright disregard of the Philippine’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and extended continental shelf as stipulated by the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).
The Filipino people must condemn the Chinese government for its increased military naval presence in the area and its brash assertions of exclusive rights. (Determination by historical data and standing international laws including the UNCLOS belie such claims.) They must also denounce the deployment of Chinese coast guard gunboats which have made more and more aggressive transgressions into Philippine territorial waters protecting big Chinese boats in Philippine fishing areas.
At the same time, the CPP and the Filipino people must condemn the US government and military for deploying a growing number of troops, warships, jetfighters, drones, surveillance planes, submarines, nuclear weapons and other war materiél in the South China Sea and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. By deploying as much as 60% of its naval forces and 50% of its army and air forces in Asia under the so-called pivot or rebalancing, the US is raising the possibility of armed confrontation and war in the region.
The CPP further condemns the US for using Philippine military camps, civilian airports and naval facilities as a base for its sea reconnaisance and overflights for surveillance, power-projection and provocations in the South China Sea.
The CPP condemns the puppet Aquino regime for making use of the conflicting claims in the South China Sea to surrender Philippine sovereignty to the US by signing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) which allows the US military to establish bases and facilities in so-called Agreed Locations within Philippine military camps.
It has also secured similar agreements or arrangements with Australia, Singapore and other compliant states in order to use these countries as military bases and staging areas for US military operations.
Over the past few days, the US has been hyping-up China’s incursions into the Philippine EEZ by “exposing” China’s land reclamations and construction of military facilities and making provocations by flying a P-8 Poseidon surveillance warplane near Chinese facilities to which China responded with radio warnings.
The US has subsequently issued public statements declaring that they will use their military might to deter any country or force from curtailing supposed “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea. The US has set its biggest aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, for sail to the Pacific Sea, with much histrionics.
Clearly, the aim of the US-coordinated media drama is to sow anti-China fear among the Filipino people and dupe them with the hoax of “US-Philippine special relations” being spun by US public opinion expert manipulators cum psy-war spinmasters and their counterparts in the Philippines.
It is obvious that the media hype being whipped up by the US and the puppet Aquino regime is being timed in anticipation of the Supreme Court resolution of the petition filed against the EDCA over issues of violations of the 1987 Philippine constitution prohibiting the establishment of foreign military bases and facilities in the country.
Rabid pro-US apologists in the Aquino regime and big corporate media have gone the lengths of making the claim that China would not have dared establish its military presence had there been US military bases in the Philippines.
The Filipino people must reject this completely unfounded propaganda line. They must also repudiate the baseless claim of the Aquino puppet regime that US military presence in the country is a deterrent to Chinaese intrusions into the Philippine EEZ and territorial waters. On the contrary, it is clear that the presence of US warships and military forces in the Philippines and in the Pacific and South China Sea is a magnet to Chinaese aggression.
The Filipino people must also dispute the claims of the puppet Aquino regime that the US will defend the Philippine’s territorial claims over areas of the Spratly islands. Die-hard pro-US apologists cite US President Obama’s 2014 rhetorical Manila speech claiming “iron clad” commitment to their treaties. However, as recent as last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry and top US officials who visited China reiterated the US position of “not taking sides” on the South China Sea disputes.
The Aquino regime and its pro-US officials are delusional in thinking that the US is building-up its military presence in the South China Sea in preparation for going to war to defend Philippine sovereignty. The US government itself declared last February in its National Security Strategy (NSS) that “the threshold for military action is higher when our interests are not directly threatened”.
The US has repeatedly asserted that it is establishing its presence in the South China Sea to ensure “freedom of navigation” which is nothing more than ensuring the free flow of US commodities from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and into the vast markets of China and the rest of Asia. (It is extremely hypocritical, in fact, for the US to dress itself up as the defender of “freedom of navigation” as it has been among the most zealous in imposing trade sanctions and economic blockades against countries which have stood up against US dictates and setting up protectionist barriers around its own economy.)
When the US military engaged the Spanish colonial forces in a mock battle at Manila Bay more than one hundred years ago, it was not for “benevolence” or generosity for the Filipino people, rather to serve the needs of the US capitalists who were in search of markets, cheap labor and raw materials. In the event that the US will engage in direct military action in the South China Sea, trust that it will not be in defense of Philippine sovereignty, but rather in pursuit of US economic and geo-political interests.
As an upstart imperialist power, China has become increasingly aggressive in defending and expanding its national territory, its markets and areas of investment and sources of oil and other resources. It is rapidly building up its military capability, even though it has yet to carry out any wars of aggression or occupation. It has, however, used its military strength as leverage in international diplomatic tussles in order to defend its interests and alliances.
As the crisis of the world capitalist system protracts and worsens, the US and China imperialist powers are becoming increasingly at odds with each other. Both sides seek to establish exclusive control over the South China Sea trade route with the aim of securing the flow of their commodities, ensure the continued expansion of markets, source of cheap raw materials and spheres of influence and investments, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
A redivision of the world through war is inevitable. Even now, proxy wars are breaking out in different parts of the world as the imperialist powers seek to secure and control oil and gas reserves, oil pipelines and trade routes, sources of rare earth, gold and other precious minerals, markets and investment areas.
The US monopoly capitalists are exerting diplomatic and politico-military pressure on China in a bid to further break down state capitalism in China and allow further expansion of the China market for US goods. In its NSS, the US self-righteously declares it “reject(s) the inevitability of confrontation” with China, but at the same time asserts it will “manage competion (with China) from a position of strength” which is nothing but a byword for expanding US military presence.
The US and Chinese imperialists and their giant militaries are no more than bullies seeking to outdo the other in establishing a foothold inside Philippine sovereign territory.
On the other hand, while engaging in saber-rattling, the imperialist powers of the US and China are united in exploiting and oppressing the proletariat and peoples of the world. The finance oligarchs and monopoly capitalists in the US and China mutually benefit from the neo-colonial drive to completely open-up the economies of the Philippines and other backward, agrarian and non-industrial countries.
In the face of such inter-imperialist rivalries and collusion, the Filipino people must stand firmly for patriotism and national freedom and oppose heightening Chinese and US militray presence within Philippine territory.
The Filipino people must defend Philippine sovereignty and demand the immediate pull-out of Chinese and US military forces in the Philippine EEZ and territorial waters. They must demand the immediate pull-out of American troops stationed in various military camps and training grounds. They must demand the immediate abrogation of the EDCA, the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT). It is but fitting for the Filipino people to mark next year the 25th anniversary of the historic rejection by the Philippine Senate of the Military Bases Agreement in September 17, 1991.
The Filipino people must struggle to put an end to the neo-colonial puppet state currently headed by top American stooge Benigno Aquino III. By perpetuating the semi-colonial and semifeudal system in the Philippines, the puppet rulers in the Philippines have neither modernized the economy nor built the capability to defend its borders and national territory.
The ruling neo-colonial state has subordinated Philippine foreign policy to US geo-political interests, relegated the Philippine economy to perpetual foreign dependence, backwardness and crisis and caused the Filipino masses to suffer from widespread poverty, oppression and exploitation.
The Filipino people must reject the war-mongering and prospective armed conflicts between the US and China military forces within the Philippines and its territorial waters. In such eventuality, the task of the Filipino people and its revolutionary forces is to further intensify the people’s war for national and social liberation.
Condemn the US and China for building up its military forces in Philippine territorial waters in the South China Sea!
Condemn Aquino’s puppetry to US imperialism!
Struggle for national and social liberation!
Advance the people’s war!
