CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The country’s biggest fishermen’s alliance has sent an urgent appeal to both houses of Congress to junk a joint letter of Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin and Foreign Affairs Sec. Albert del Rosario seeking a “wider role of US military in the country.”
The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya (Pamalakaya) said that the proposal seemed cut out for the US military to re-establish at its former US naval base in Subic, now a freeport, for swifter access to the West Philippine Sea where the Philippines and China are embroiled in territorial dispute.
Pamalakaya warned that the joint proposal would “increase the rotational presence of US military” not just in the Subic area but all over the country” purportedly to improve the government’s “capacity to guard against any foreign threat.”
“This is extremely dangerous to the sovereign rights of the people,” Pamalakaya Vice Chair Salvador France said.
He also stressed that the Aquino administration’s opening up more to the US military merely serves to provoke the Chinese government to fortify its presence in areas involved in territorial disputes with the Philippines.
France cited reports that Philippine officials are to start a “series of negotiations with the United States on the increased presence of US military in the country to deter what they call the disturbing military build-up of China and noticeable presence of Beijing troops inside the hotly contested West Philippine Sea.”
He noted that in their joint letter to Congress, Gazmin and Del Rosario asserted that allowing more US military access in the country through ”increased rotational presence” would lead to a “minimum credible defense” of Philippine territory.
The two also said that larger American presence would also mean more resources and training for Filipinos in responding to disasters in the country.
Pamalakaya said “the plans of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to relocate major air force and navy camps to Subic Bay Free Port Zone is a prelude to the grand return of US military bases in the country.”
Pamalakaya said that apparently, the US government prefers to use its former US naval base in Subic as this could accommodate more warships than Sangley Point in Cavite, which used to be also a US military installation.
“The US military command wants Subic because its location will cut reaction time by fighter aircraft to contested West Philippine Sea by more than three minutes compared with flying from Clark airfield where some air force planes are based,” France said.
France also noted reports that the cost of repairs and improvements for an air force base in Subic was estimated at P5.1 billion (about $119 million), much lower than the estimated P11 billion ($256 million) cost of establishing another military base elsewhere in the country. Subic already has a world-class runway and aviation facilities, he noted.
Earlier, the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) confirmed plans to move all the six units of the Philippine Air Force to Subic.
But France said “the AFP is just a front” and that “it is the US military command who will actually use the facilities of Subic for wars of aggression and in terrorizing people of nations highly critical of US military forces and extremely opposed to US military gangsterism all over the world.”
Earlier, Pamalakaya petitioned Justice Sec. Leila de Lima to issue an opinion on the proposed larger access of the US military in the country amid the Constitutional ban on foreign military bases.
“De Lima should break her silence and tell Malacanang that the proposal to give greater access to US, Japan and other junior partners of Washington DC is a flagrant violation of the 1987 Constitution and grand affront to the sovereign rights of more than 100 million Filipinos. As of now, she is evading this constitutional duty,” noted Pamalakaya.
