Vol. 73/No. 34      September 7, 2009

The U.S. troops have played a key role in helping the Philippine armed forces fight Islamist groups and others opposed to the Philippine government in the southern part of the country. The island nation is made up of some 7,000 islands, strategically located between Indonesia and China.

For almost five decades after the Philippines won formal independence in 1946, Washington maintained a large military presence, including the two largest bases outside U.S. borders—Subic Bay naval base and Clark air base.

In 1986 the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos was toppled by a mass upsurge. Sustained protests by working people succeeded in forcing the Philippine Senate to close the U.S. bases in 1992, a big blow to U.S. imperialist interests in the region.

While 80 percent of the Philippines’ 98 million people are Catholic, about 5 percent, mostly in the south, are Muslim. Between 1967 and 1971, government-sanctioned programs evicted some 800,000 Muslims from their land. Discrimination, including in employment, continues today.

During the decades-long conflict on the southern island of Mindanao, where most Muslims live, more than 120,000 people have been killed.

In 1996 the Philippine government signed a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and agreed to some limited autonomy for the Muslim regions. In the early 1970s, the MNLF had tied down some 40 percent of the Philippine military.

A split off from the more secular MNLF, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which calls for independence for the Muslim regions in the south and the establishment of Sharia law, signed an uneasy on-again, off-again truce with the Philippine government in 2001.

The U.S. Special Forces were first sent to Basilan Island, south of Mindanao, in 2002 to help the Philippine military counter a third group, Abu Sayyaf, which Washington charges has ties to al-Qaeda. On August 12 the Philippine Army and National Police raided the main Abu Sayyaf camp in Basilan.

Along with the Special Forces, Washington has sent night-vision goggles and drones to aid the Philippine military.

Col. William Coultrup, the current U.S. Special Forces commander in the Philippines, told the New York Times that most of the U.S. operations involved building roads, schools, and health clinics as well as offering medical examinations. But he boasted that the military mission has helped the Philippine armed forces “neutralize high-value targets.”

Bayan, a coalition of union, peasant, and student organizations in the Philippines, has protested the U.S. military presence.

“The retention of U.S. troops in the Philippines is an affront to our sovereignty, disguised as some questionable humanitarian mission,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said in a statement. He called for “the immediate pullout of all U.S. military troops and personnel not only in Mindanao, but in other parts of the country.”
 
 
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