[asia-apec 658] Peasants junk Estrada govt's "Hush Puppies" stand

[PAN Asia Pacific]

FORWARDED MAIL -------
From: kmp at info.com.ph
Date: 11 Sep 98

10 September 1998 
News Release
For immediate release

RURAL FOLK REBUKE VFA

Peasants and fisherfolk asserted their right to picket the tightly-guarded
US embassy today, 10 September and jostled with police to deliver their
message of opposition to the US-RP Visiting Forces Agreement. 

 They brought with them mongrel puppies representing President Joseph
Estrada and defense secretary Orlando Mercado, who were held with leashes by
an activist dressed as Uncle Sam.

 Rafael Mariano, chair of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) which
led the protest action, said it is the millions of peasants, fisherfolk and
indigenous people which have the most to lose if the Senate bows down to
pressure from US imperialism to ratify the treaty, because the military
exercises are to be conducted in the expanses of populated farms and fishing
grounds.

 The vaguely worded VFA allows the US government immunity from liabilities
to pay for damage to civilian property, while resources and areas deemed
necessary to sustain operations can be expropriated from the lands and seas
if the leadership of the visiting forces declares them necessary to achieve
their military aims. 

 This would translate into massive dislocations of and human rights
violations against large sections of the rural population, perpetrated by
the civilian and armed forces of both the US and the Philippine governments
whose criminal liabilities can be dismissed simply by invoking national
security interests. 

 The numerous cases of abuses documented in the two former baselands in
Subic and Olongapo will now be replicated in the entire country. Renewed
formal ties with and supplies of weapons from American militarists would
intensify the fascist character of the AFP, the police and paramilitary
units under the Estrada administration's inclination towards authoritarian
rule, with the aim of crushing democratic dissent and the national
liberation movement. 

 Mariano said that the VFA has no benefits for Filipinos and being the
military component of globalization can only serve the traditional strategic
agenda of the US-Japan military-industrial alliance.  The military bases and
free access to territories in many countries serve to extend the capability
of the US to either dominate, intimidate or actively intervene in the
affairs of these nations, to protect its own political and economic
interests against other imperialist countries. 

 In the Philippines and surrounding countries in the Asian region, the VFA
would dovetail into the designee of the IMF and World Bank to keep backward
countries in a state of agrarian and pre-industrial backwardness. The
agreement also secures from political instability the vast landholdings and
investments of multinational corporations and the oil and raw material
supply routes vital to the needs of industrial countries. 

 In exchange of all these, Filipinos are caught in the crossfire between the
US and its increasing array of sworn enemies. 

 The peasants and fisherfolk reiterated their demands for genuine agrarian
reform and national industrialization, which they said, will in the long
term strengthen the nation politically and economically against foreign
aggression.  

 KMP urged the Senate to reject the VFA and abrogate the US-RP Mutual
Defense Treaty of 1951 and other unequal and one-sided treaties and
agreements. He called on the people to continue with the struggle for
national freedom and democracy and a truly sovereign with a democratic
government that would pursue a non-aligned, peaceful and independent foreign
policy. ###


Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
69 Maayusin St., UP Village,
Quezon City Philippines
kmp at info.com.ph