[asia-apec 946] FYI: International Campaign Against US-Phil Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)

[tpl at cheerful.com]

>From: GABRIELA <gab at mnl.sequel.net>
>From: GABRIELA Network - U.S.A. <gabnet at gabnet.org>
>>
>>
>>NEW PHILIPPINE-US MILITARY AGREEMENT OPENS
>>ARCHIPELAGO TO GREATER EXPLOITATION, HUMAN
>>RIGHTS VIOLATION AND SEX TRAFFICKING
>>
>>
>>Where in the world can the United States bring in any number of
>>military and civilian personnel through any airport or harbor at any time
>>without passport and visa?  Where can an American commit the most
>>heinous crime with impunity, so long as the US military commander issues
>>a certificate stating that such "arises out of an act or omission done
>>in the performance of official duty?"
>>
>>What country in the world automatically and ipso facto waives "any and
>>all claims... for damage, loss or destruction to property ... or for
>>death or injury to  military and civilian personnel?"
>>
>>These are the intolerable provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA),
>>signed by the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the US
>>Ambassador to the Philippines last February 10, 1998.  It was a
>>"midnight act" of the outgoing administration of former President,
>>Marcos crony General Fidel V. Ramos, a West Point Academy graduate.
>>
>>GABRIELA Network, a Philippine-US women's solidarity organization, asks
>>all Americans to contact their Congressional representatives, both in
>>the lower and upper house, to register their opposition to this virtual
>>re-colonization and US military occupation of the Philippines.  The
>>people and the nation of that archipelago have already been much-imposed
>>upon, subjected to a hundred year struggle against the dominance and
>>control of the United States.
>>
>>The US military's record, for the nearly 50 years after WWII that it was
>>in the Philippines, stands as follows:
>>1]  almost a million women enticed into the sex trade developed by the
>>US military authority ;
>>2]  some 60,000 children abandoned by their American soldier-fathers;
>>3]   HIV/AIDS entered the Philippines through the bases;
>>4]  dumped "low-level" radioactive wastes into the Pacific waters;
>>5]  "accidentally" killed and maimed Filipinos, "mistaking" them for
>>wild boars;
>>6]  killed and maimed women and children for "rest-and-recreation"
>>pleasures.
>>
>>Enough is enough.  There is no need for additional US military bases;
>>indeed, there is a need to reduce if not remove all US bases in the
>>Pacific.  The US military has bases in Guam, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan
>>and Palau.  The Visiting Forces Agreement is an unnecessary expense,
>>which will cut into the social programs for the poor in the United
>>States.
>>
>>It is also morally and ethically wrong.  The Filipino people have fought
>>against continued US dominance, especially US military dominance, within
>>its national territory.  They have undergone an epic suffering, much of
>>which has gone unrecorded and unremarked upon by the American people.
>>We must put a stop to the battering and the stalking of this nation and
>>people by our own military.
>>
>>On this hundredth year anniversary of the Philippine-American war,
>>during which the archipelago lost 1/8th of its population, the American
>>people has the opportunity to correct a historic wrong.  And the
>>American people can do so simply by exercising their democratic right to
>>have control over foreign affairs and diplomatic decisions made by their
>>own government.
>>
>>Please demand of the US Congress that the Visiting Forces Agreement
>>entered into by the United States  with the Philippines be terminated
>>immediately.  Please send the same message to the Philippine government,
>>which is under the erroneous impression that no one cares about the
>>Filipino people on this side of the Pacific.  Send your objections to:
>>
>>              President Joseph Estrada
>>              Malacanang Palace
>>              Manila, Philippines
>>
>>Please send us a copy at gabnet at gabnet.org or GABNet, PO Box 403, Times
>>Square Station, New York, NY 10036.