ANGELES CITY- The activist party-list group Anakpawis accused yesterday Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario of virtually dragging the Philippines into war by saying that the country would welcome anew US military bases should war break out in the Korean peninsula.
Their statements manifested “reckless show of puppetry amidst the extremely volatile situation in the Korean Peninsula,” said Anakpawis party-list chairperson Randall Echanis.
Hundreds of American military troops are at present in their former military bases at Clark and Subic, now both economic zones, as well as in other parts of Central Luzon for joint Philippine-American war exercises under Balikatan 2013.
Echanis noted Gazmin’s statement on “the possibility of restoring the US bases in the Philippines in case of a war in the Korean Peninsula.”
The defense chief was also quoted to have said that “the greater presence of American troops in the country should be welcomed as it was allowed under the longstanding mutual defense treaty between the Philippines and the United States.”
Echanis lamented that ”Gazmin and del Rosario are not content with the endless Balikatan exercises and regular docking of US warships already turned the country into a virtual US military base.”
“Giving the US basing rights and turn the country into a staging ground for the US’ war of aggression against the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) will surely drag the country to war. The Aquino government’s offering of greater US military presence clearly demonstrates extreme puppetry to the US,” Echanis said.
“Instead of respecting the DPRK’s assertion of national sovereignty, the puppet Aquino government allows itself to be used in the US’ provocation and fuels the already extreme tension in the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
This, even as Anakpawis called for the pull-out of US troops from the Korean Peninsula to calm tensions that could lead to a nuclear war.
“The US should immediately withdraw its armed troops and war machines from the Korean Peninsula to de-escalate the ongoing tension and standoff and pave the way for a peaceful political resolution to reunify the peninsula,” Echanis said.
