[asia-apec 1101] Junk VFA Movement gears for Philippine Senate showdown

[BAYAN]

From: BAYAN <bayan at iname.com>

JUNK VFA MOVEMENT 
 
MEDIA RELEASE 
23 April 1999 
 
Junk VFA Movement gears for Senate showdown 
 
Starting Sunday up to the day of the Senate voting on the Visiting Forces
Agreement (VFA), calibrated protests will be staged by various groups under
the Junk VFA Movement to culminate in a two-day nationally coordinated mass
action and caravan. 
 
The Senate showdown, according to the alliance of anti-VFA groups, aims to
show the people's broad opposition to the military agreement and convince
the senators to reject it. 
 
“In the past few weeks, people have been treated to a barrage of pro-VFA
propaganda on television, radio and in the newspapers. While the government
is squandering the people's money for such an expensive media blitz, we on
the other hand, have the people behind us,” said retired Capt. Danilo
Vizmanos, convenor of the Junk VFA Movement. 
 
“Our battlezones will be in the streets,” he added. 
 
The anti-VFA countdown starts on April 25 with a fun run, dubbed as "Run
for freedom! A race against the VFA.” Students, athletes, yuppies, artists,
gays, TV personalities, professionals and a few lawmakers will run and walk
from the Quirino Grandstand to the CCP Complex to show their opposition to
the VFA. 
 
“We want to provide a fun and popular venue for the people to express their
sentiment against the VFA. We want to encourage everybody from all walks of
life to manifest their opposition in whatever way they can,” said Vizmanos. 
 
In the morning of April 26, members of Bayan's NCR chapter will picket the
Senate. In the afternoon, the Southern Tagalog anti-VFA alliance, Kalas
VFA, will hold their own rally also in front of the Senate. 
 
Modern-day Gabrielas will take center stage on May 5, with an all-women
chain stretching from the US Embassy to the Senate building. They will link
arms with one another to prevent the ratification of the VFA that will
again allow the entry of US military troops in the country. 
 
According to Gabriela, thousands of poor women were forced into
prostitution during the long stay of US military bases in the country. The
Senate Joint Committee Report claims that this will not be a problem since
under the VFA, no bases will be established. 
 
However, the Junk VFA Movement pointed out that there is no limit as to how
long US personnel can stay in the country. The “short visits” may extend to
weeks and months. During their stay, it is inevitable that so-called “rest
and recreation” establishments will mushroom. 
 
Migrant workers, fisherfolk, environmental groups, artists and other
sectors will hold separate protests at the Senate. 
 
The series of protests will culminate in a nationally-coordinated protest
action on the eve and the day of the Senate voting, including a caravan to
the Senate from the Southern Tagalog, Northern Luzon and Central Luzon
regions. 
 
The Joint Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense and Security,
chaired by Sen. Blas Ople and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, a former military
general), has already submitted their report recommending the ratification
of the VFA. 
 
To placate critics and sugarcoat some of the most onerous provisions of the
VFA, the committee has recommended the creation of an oversight committee
to monitor the implementation of the VFA. It also urged President Estrada
to issue several executive orders to ensure the protection of the
environment, to guarantee that tariff laws are not violated and to draw
guidelines to avoid conflicts on criminal jurisdiction issues. 
 
Bayan Deputy Secretary General Teodoro Casiño slammed the recommendations.
He said these do not change the onerous and one-sided military agreement. ### 

====================

MEDIA RELEASE 
19 April 1999 

BAYAN hits VFA senate committee report, 
serenade senators to reject VFA 
 
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today labeled the report of the Senate's
joint committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) as "a failed effort
at damage control." 
 
The group, along with the alliance of artists opposed to the VFA, Kalag
VFA, serenaded senators urging them to reject the VFA during today’s Senate
opening session. 
 
Bayan said the recommendation of the Senate Joint Committee on Foreign
Relations and National Defense and Security forming an oversight committee
to monitor the implementation of the VFA and urging the President to issue
several executive orders, were merely meant to placate anti-VFA opposition
and did not in any way change the onerous and one-sided nature of the
agreement. 
 
The recommendations are contained in the Final Report of the Joint
Committee formally submitted to senators last Friday, April 16. 

“We are not deceived. The recommendations do not resolve the bases of
opposition of the people. The VFA should be rejected in its entirety,” he
said. 
 
“The Joint Committee report implicitly recognizes the faulty provisions of
the VFA, that’s why the Senate did not simply concur but urged the
President to enact some damage control measures. The irony is that while
these executive issuances appear to give more teeth to the government in
protecting national interest, the VFA has in fact, and in effect, already
clipped such government powers. The VFA has rendered the government
practically inutile 
in asserting the rights and interests of the people,” said Casiño. 
 
The group scoffed at the Joint Committee’s proposal recommending the
President to direct the Dept. of Justice “to draw appropriate guidelines,
in accordance with the VFA, that will prevent conflicts on jurisdictional
issues.” 
 
“What guideline is there to draw? Surrender of Philippine criminal
jurisdiction is already spelled out in the VFA. In fact, almost half of the
entire VFA text is devoted to this. Whatever ‘exclusive jurisdiction’ the
Estrada government claims it can assert is removed in the succeeding pages
through legal sophistry,” he added. 
 
Casino cited the recent cable car tragedy in Italy, where the US pilot
responsible for the death of 22 Europeans was acquitted by US court, as an
example of what could happen in the Philippines under the VFA. "If Italy, a
fellow NATO member, failed to try the U.S. pilot involved in the cable car
tagedy, what more in the Philippines, with a government subservient to the
US?” he added. 
 
Casiño said the Joint Committee missed the point in suggesting that the
Bureau of Customs closely monitor the implementation of tax exemptions
granted to the U.S. “The point is not the possible circumvention of tariff
laws but the onerous tax exemption itself. The country is losing billions
of pesos every year due to tariff reductions under the WTO and most of the
TNCs who benefit from these are American. Witness the number of cheap U.S.
imports flooding the market. We find it totally unacceptable that while the
Estrada government is planning to enforce new taxes on Filipinos, it is
granting special privileges to the US,” he said. 
 
Bayan also assailed the report’s failure to mention the VFA’s implementing
arrangements. “Where are the implementing arrangements mentioned in the
VFA? It’s like the people are being made to sign a contract where the
specific provisions are unknown,” said Casiño. 
 
The group also dismissed the Joint Committee’s recommendation urging the
President to cause proper representations to the U.S. government about the
Filipino World War II veteran’s equity claims, corrections of certain
accounts on the Philippine-American War, the preferential treatment for
Philippine products in trade and various quotas. "These are all
sugarcoating for the VFA poison." 
 
“It’s actually a bribe. It attempts to sweeten the VFA,” said Casiño. ###