Military

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/27 March) – The US warship, USS Vandegrift, has been "going around" Mindanao since they arrived in the Philippines in January and Cagayan de Oro is its third Mindanao port call, after Cotabato and General Santos.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/26 March) -- Protesters in Cagayan de Oro want USS Vandegrift warship out of the city, out of the country.

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/21 Feb) – The Citizens Peace Watch declared that US troops parading the streets of Sulu in full battle gear are destroying the “culture of peace” that different organizations have been painstakingly trying to establish in the province.

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/19 Feb)--  A streamer declaring “we want peace not war.  Stop Balikatan exercise!” provided the backdrop at the city’s Freedom Plaza as civil society representatives talked about their opposition to the RP-US Balikatan 2008 in Lanao.
 

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/19 Feb) – A Mindanawon representative from the Gabriela Party has urged Congress to “move for the abrogation of the lopsided military agreements – the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement,” and ban US troops in the country  “to uphold its sovereignty, to reclaim our land and our dignity that has, for years, been trampled on over and over again.”

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/18 Feb) – Members of militant groups from Carmen, North Cotabato who joined the caravan against the RP-US Balikatan en route to Pikit town also in North Cotabato, complained they were held in Datu Montawal town along the Davao-Cotabato highway,  at around 10 a.m.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 February) –More protest actions will greet Day 1 of the seventh year of  RP-US Balikatan today in key areas in Mindanao while a Citizens’ Peace Watch will be monitoring Balikatan in Zamboanga and Sulu.

DAVAO CITY ((MindaNews/12 Feb) --  Governor Datu Zaldy Uy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) welcomes and is grateful to the United States government for its “persistent conduct of humanitarian services” especially in the region’s “poor and remote areas” but maintains it is “fair and right” that the Balikatan 2008 be discussed with their constituents first “before its conduct.”

“We want respect,” he stressed, adding the US government “should first conduct consultation with the stakeholders from the area.” 

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 February) – The Public Affairs Section of the United States Embassy in Manila said there will be “no military exercises or war games conducted in Mindanao and Sulu” during the conduct of the RP-US Balikatan 2008 from February 18 to March 3 but “Mindanao and Sulu” will receive “humanitarian assistance” within that period.

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/6 Feb) -- “We love Mindanao! US troops out now!”

Chanting these phrases, militant groups under the US Troops Out Now coalition vowed to expose the evils of the upcoming joint RP-US military exercises dubbed Balikatan in the Lanao provinces set to start Feb. 18. They have lined up almost daily activities here and in the neighboring cities of Marawi and Cagayan de Oro.

MARAWI CITY (MindaNews/05 February) --  The young and the old, women in black, religious leaders, government and civil society organizations gathered at the public plaza at Banggolo this morning, for the second rally since the weekend, against the joint RP-US military exercises, Balikatan.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/January 19) – Stop the holding of Balikatan scheduled in February this year in Sulu and Basilan and address instead the complaints against US troops for alleged brazen show of arrogance in some parts of Mindanao, a militant group today said in a statement.

UPPER BULANAN, Midsayap, North Cotabato (MindaNews/20 October) –  In what is said to be a  preparation for a joint RP-US military exercise within this region next year,  three teams from the US military, Philippine military and Municipal Health Office conducted a “medical civic action program”  (medcap) in 15 villages here Thursday until Friday noon, allotting two hours each per village.

But what can two hours achieve except tell patients to go see their doctor

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/10 October) -- The team of American soldiers ordered disarmed by a Philippine Army brigade commander last month after showing off their service firearms inside a posh restaurant here is reportedly leaving for a new assignment in Mindanao.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 June) -- Bayan Muna today slammed what it called the “meddling of US military” in the investigation of the Friday bombings in Bansalan, Davao del Sur and Cotabato City.

 

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/22 May) -- Ten members of the US military based in Okinawa, Japan are in this city for a three-day lecture on bomb detonation and disposat that ends Wednesday.