DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 August) -- “The presence of U.S. troops in the country is a blatant intervention to the internal affairs of our country. In fact, their decision to continuously deploy U.S. soldiers in the Philippines not only violates our sovereignty but it also puts our national security under threat. We do not need G.I. Joes to fight our own battles,” Gabriela Women’s party representative Liza Maza said in a statement.

Maza was reacting to the Arroyo administration’s welcoming the report of US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to keep an elite 600-soldier counterinsurgency operation deployed in the Philippines.

“What is their real mission in the country? After the Philippine Senate rejected the treaty extending the stay of US military bases in the country in 1991, US troops have been constantly deployed since 2002 under the pretext of civilian-military operations and counterterrorism trainings,”  Maza said.

“Harap-harapan na tayong pinagsasamantalahan ngunit pinamumukha pa sa atin na tayo pa ang may utang na loob sa U.S. dahil umano sa mga humanitarian missions nila. Hindi mga bobo at mangmang ang mga Pilipino para maniwalang walang malaking kapalit sa sabwatang ito ni GMA at ng U.S.” (We are being raped but we are being told that we owe the US for its humanitarian missions. Filipinos are not stupid to believe there is nothing in exchange for whatever GMA and the US agree upon), said Maza.

At the Senate, Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) in a press statement Sunday urged the Arroyo government to explain the legal basis for the continuing presence of some 600 American troops in the country even as he acknowledged the United States’ contributions in the campaign against terrorism here.

Pimentel said it is not clear whether the deployment of US troops – called Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines -- in Mindanao is by virtue of the Mutual Defense Treaty, the Visiting Forces Agreement or any other security accord between the US and the Philippines.

“The US is our ally.  But if they have troops who are deployed in the country, they should not take part in combat operations against insurgents and other criminal elements here,” he said.

Pimentl said the VFA allows the entry of American troops but only for a limited period to conduct joint military exercises with their Filipino counterparts and in accordance with the Balikatan terms of reference.

The only Balikatan with a TOR was the first, in 2002, because militant groups demanded the presentation of a TOR.

Maza recently filed a Resolution in the Lower House questioning the presence of 6,000 troops aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier USS George Washington for their so-called “goodwill” visit to the Philippines the other week. She has also asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to explain the nature and scope of their continued deployment in the land.

Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of the US Pacific Command, was asked by Tom Shanker of the New York Times, during the Atlantic Council forum on June 29 this year, to assess the operations of the US military in the Philippines. 

Shanker asked for Keating’s assessment of the Joint Special Operations Taskforce operating in the Philippines.  

“What have been the positive takeaways, and, given the stress on soft forces by the surge that dare not call its name in Afghanistan, do you think those forces should be sustained in the Philippines – even grow – or is it time for them to go home and let the Filipinos take over?” Shanker asked.

Keating, who visited Manila on August 13, to co-chair two bilateral defense and security board meeting, replied, that they were “directed – we, Pacific Command – to provide forces in conjunction with the United States Special Operations Command to help the armed forces in the Philippines in their struggle against violent extremism, principally in the southern reaches of the Philippine country – Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiya in particular.”

“We’ve been there for about six years now (actually seven, since 2002 – MindaNews ed),  in some number.  We’ve got, I’ll just say, several hundred operators there right now, Thom, as you probably know.  They’ve been there for a while.  A critical mission; helping significantly the armed forces of the Philippines, in our view, go back to the metrics question – incidents of violence.  While there are still kidnappings, we’re not entirely sure that there are terrorists.  A little bit of a blurry line in some areas of the Philippines between criminal activity and terrorist activity,” he said.

“It’s a situation we analyze constantly with the Department of Defense, Department of State and the National Security Council.  We’re there for the foreseeable future and I think that the benefits we gain in spite of significant tension on Special Operations forces, are important enough that we maintain our posture and presence in the Southern Philippines,” he said. 

After the Philippine Senate rejected the treaty extending the stay of US military bases in the country in 1991,  US troops returned in the country in January 2002 for Balikatan 02-1 which was supposed to have ended six months later.

But US military troops remained in various parts of Mindanao after the six-month Balikatan  was over.

Former US Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone told MindaNews in 2005 that they have “established a semi-continuous, not permanent, but semi-continuous (military presence)” in the Philippines.

He declined to give the number of US troops in the country, saying only,  “some number of our personnel rotate at the pleasure of … your command.” (MindaNews)

---

Share this story through the following Social Media sites: