CPP Information Bureau
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemned the US military for its incursion into the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the Sulu Sea causing damage to the corals after the marooning of its naval warship within the wildlfe protected area.
Reports yesterday indicate that the USS Guardian, a US naval countermeasure ship, ran aground at around 2:30am within the Tubbataha Reefs, a marine park designated in 1993 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
US naval personnel barred Park rangers from approaching the grounded ship which entered the heritage park without prior authorization.
“The entry of the USS Guardian in the protected area without prior notice or authorization shows the arrogance of the US military who swagger around Philippine territory in complete disregard of Philippine sovereignty,” said the CPP. “They are doing so with the all-out support of its puppet Benigno Aquino Jr. who has openly fawned on the US military as its guardian and benefactor.”
“The failure of the Aquino government to stand up against the persistent incursions of the US in Philippine territory reveals its puppetry to the US imperialists,” said the CPP. “It reveals the hypocrisy behind Aquino’s rhetorics against China. He raises protests over China’s claims to territories in the Southern China Sea which are within the 200-mile economic zone of the Philippines, but is overjoyed at the sight of a cavalcade of US nuclear-warships sailing in our sovereign waters and docking wherever and whenever they want,” said the CPP.
“The damage of the corals at Tubbataha caused by the USS Guardian is only a small part of the bigger damage being caused by the permanent presence of US troops, ships, drones and jetfighters in the Philippines,” said the CPP. “The much bigger picture involves the subjection of the Philippines to US military dominance, in order to use the Philippines as a platform for US hegemonist power projection in the Asia-Pacific region to achieve military and economic dominance in the region.”
“The damaging of the Tubbataha reefs underscore the demand of the Filipino people for the immediate abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA),” said the CPP. “They demand an end to the permanent presence of US troops, the involvement of US advisers in the domestic armed conflict, the participation of American soldiers in local combat operations, the persistent entry and rotational docking of US naval warships and flying of US jet fighters and unmanned drones in Philippine sovereign airspace.”