Unequal relations underpin biggest US-PH war games

Unequal relations underpin biggest US-PH war games

By Renato Reyes Jr.  ·

One week before Balikatan kicks off, Bayan scores “unequal relations” underpinning war games

As the United States and the Philippines prepare for their biggest joint military exercises in history, Bayan raises the issue of gross inequality permeating the relationship between the two countries.

“All the exiting military agreements are based on unequal relations between an imperialist superpower and its neocolony. The unequal US military bases agreement then was replaced by an unequal Visiting Forces Agreement and an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

“We have granted the US free use of the entire country for its bases and troops. These military arrangements have huge advantages for the US, but since our government has chosen a mendicant foreign policy, the government has cheapened our national sovereignty. In exchange for what? For excess defense articles and decommissioned ships that the US no longer uses? It is truly a sad state of affairs,” Reyes said.

The group warned against government cheering on the arrival of foreign troops as if the US is here to rescue the Philippines. “We should be wary of the US agenda for these war games. It is not about Philippine sovereignty. It is about an inter-imperialist rivalry between the US and China, and we are not obliged to pick one bully over the other. The US is merely using our country as a foot stool for intervention in the region,” he added.

Bayan has underscored the provisions of the VFA which have so far allowed the US to station troops in the country permanently since 2002, rent-free. The EDCA also allows the US free use of “agreed locations” for its facilities, where the US does not pay any rent, are given free use of our radio frequencies, and are exempted from paying taxes on utilities such as water and electricity. “From 2002 up to the present, there have been US troops stationed in the Philippines, a permanent presence that cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, still be considered ‘visiting’. They have been stationed here for over 2 decades and have not paid a single cent in rent,” Reyes said.

“For the US, the political gains from their being here is huge. The Balikatan war games are part of US power projection in the region. The EDCA is part of the US basing strategy in the region. Meanwhile, the social costs on the Philippines is great, from human rights and environmental issues, to prostitution and other social ills. We are simply at the losing end in these military agreements,” Reyes added.

Bayan called on the people to be critical of US military intervention, saying that this is the cause of our underdevelopment. “Our armed forces have remained backward after over 6 decades being part of the US defense umbrella. It is our dependence on the US that has made us weak,” he said.

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