REBUTTAL OF F. SIONIL JOSE’S RED-BAITING

Letter to the Editor
San Francisco Chronicle
February 8, 2002
REBUTTAL OF F. SIONIL JOSE’S RED-BAITING
Dear Editor,
Last February 5, 2002, several scores of Filipinos and Americans
demonstrated in front of the Philippine Consulate to remember the 103rd
anniversary of the start of the nearly forgotten Filipino-American War.
The bloody and shameful war of re-colonization saw nearly 1.4 million
Filipinos and Moros perish in the hands of US troops from 1899 – 1916.
The protesters also denounced Philippine President Macapagal-Arroyo’s
policy to allow US combat troops into the Philippines, because it is
not
an infringement of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,
but also a blatant violation of the country’s constitution, which
disallows foreign military troops and bases unless provided in a
treaty.
The fact is none of the treaties and agreements between the US and the
Philippines, whether the Mutual Defense Treaty or the Visiting Forces
Agreement lawfully allows the re-entry of US military forces.
The excuse provided for the US troops is that they are there to help
quell the terrorist Abu Sayyaf. What the public is largely unaware of
is
that the CIA and the Philippine military helped to create the Abu
Sayyaf
group as a way to split the Moro insurgency from within. When the Moro
National Liberation Front surrendered to the Manila government in 1996,
both sponsors abandoned the ASG to its own devices and it turned to
banditry and kidnapping in a big way.
It is not surprising that more than 7,000 Filipino soldiers cannot seem
to quell these terrorists numbering no more than 100 encircled in an
area
no bigger than Los Angeles. Fr. Cirilo Nacorda—a Filipino priest twice
held hostage by the ASG—and many residents of Basilan attest to the
active connivance between the local military commanders, local
politicians and the Abu Sayyaf. The Macapagal-Arroyo administration has
chosen to whitewash the investigation into rampant military and police
corruption. Instead, Macapagal-Arroyo has opted to bring back the US
military.
However, far from abating rising criminality, the introduction of US
forces will only complicate an already explosive mix. The Green Berets,
Navy SEALs and Special Forces will be brought into actual combat areas
and allowed to fire live ammunition "in self defense." Worse, Defense
Secretary Gen. Angelo Reyes has stated that, "after the Abu Sayyaf, the
New People’s Army is next." The protesters are rightly concerned that
this US intervention in internal Philippine matters will merely serve
as
a dangerous tripwire for a ever-widening war of US aggression similar
to
what happened in Vietnam some 30-40 years ago.
Finally, the demonstrators demanded that the US government and the city
of San Francisco take down the Union Square "Victory" Monument because
it
celebrates the dispatch of US troops to re-colonize the Philippines
after
Filipinos already wrested control from their Spanish colonial rulers at
the turn of the century. The protesters saw it as a "monumental insult"
to Filipinos.
F. Sionil Jose who yesterday commented on the protest disparages
Filipino
nationalists when he dismisses the protesters simply "as
communist-inspired or alienated from reality." He needs to do better
than
employ the worn-out, red-baiting antics reminiscent of Dictator Marcos.
The fact is a survey conducted by Ibon Databank in the Philippines last
November-December 2001 reveals that a majority of Filipinos are opposed
to the introduction of US troops into the volatile political situation
in
the Philippines.
In recent weeks, growing numbers of Filipinos coming from all walks of
life—from youth, women, indigenous people, church people, laborers,
farmers, environmentalists, and even government officials—have come
forward as they have in 1991 (when the bases were forced out). This
time,
they are clamoring for the immediate removal of the US troops. Those
who
question the validity and legality of the US troop deployment, in fact,
not only include opposition and administration solons, but also Vice
President Teofisto Guingona himself.
He also insults the overseas Filipinos and Americans who see through
the
Bush Doctrine of open-ended, unlimited war as being nothing more than a
terrorist ploy to perpetuate its domination of countries like the
Philippines.
Genuine peace will be at hand when the US superpower stops meddling and
plotting to make a full military comeback and respects the right to
self-determination of the Filipino and Moro peoples.

Mario Santos
BAYAN (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) Bay Area
_________________________________________________________________
FILIPINO PROTESTERS
Editor – While visiting San Francisco I watched, on TV, a demonstration
before the Philippine Consulate on Sutter Street. The demonstrators,
perhaps Filipino Americans or Filipinos, were shouting the same tired
slogans about imperialism and demanding withdrawal of the few American
troops in the Philippines to help the government fight the terrorist
network Abu Sayyaf.
The American troops are in the Philippines at the behest of President
Gloria Macagapal Arroyo to train our army in anti-terrorist tactics and
provide our military with the latest military hardware. Their presence
is
approved by the majority of Filipinos. Those demonstrators at Sutter
were
either Communist-inspired or alienated from Philippine reality.
We know that there will be no development in Mindanao until the Abu
Sayyaf is destroyed and the Moro problem can be resolved peacefully.
To paraphrase our national hero Jose Rizal, the fight for Philippine
freedom is not in the United States but in the Philippines.

F. SIONIL JOSE
Manila