US forces here to stay, says US envoy
Julie Alipala
Inquirer.net
ZAMBOANGA CITY–The United States will not likely pull out its military forces in the Philippines under the incoming Obama administration despite the demand of some sectors, according to US Ambassador Kristie Kenney.
Prof. Octavio Dinampo, chair of Sulu’s Bantay Ceasefire and one of the conveners of the Mindanao Peoples’ Caucus, described Kenney’s statement on Monday as “a tacit admission that US troops are here to stay for good in their various bases within the AFP camps.”
President-elect Barack Obama has already called President Macapagal-Arroyo “to assure US relations with the Philippines,” Kenney told reporters here on Monday.
“The partnership here [has been]…going strong for so many years,” she said.
The Democrats’ Obama will formally assume the US presidency on Jan. 20 after winning over John McCain of the Republican Party early this month.
Kenney explained that “it’s the Armed Forces of the Philippines which will suggest whether it needs more or less (American) troops on a temporary basis.”
But Herbert Docena of the Philippine-based Focus Global South said Obama’s election “testifies to the rejection by the American people of Bush’s militarist war on terror.” He was referring to outgoing US President George W. Bush and his defense policy.
Anti-VFA groups
The Focus Global South and other groups campaigning against the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) are appealing to the new US president “to heed his people’s clamor for peace by withdrawing troops in the Philippines.”
Under the VFA, American soldiers are allowed temporary stay in the Philippines while training with their Filipino counterparts in warfare and counterterrorism, particularly against the Jemaah Islamiyah-linked Abu Sayyaf.
Col. Willian Coultrup, commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, said the US government could not ascertain plans to withdraw US troops from different parts of the world. Any movements in the US military will happen in January “once the new president is sworn in,” he said.
‘Double-talk’
“Ambassador Kenney and Colonel Coultrup are experts in double-talk. When they claim that the US stay depends on the AFP…how can it drive the United States away when the AFP itself is assuring them to stay permanently?” Dinampo said.
Coultrup also said the Philippine military had shown “a very telling sign” during the counterterrorism campaign.
“[It has been] noticed lately [that] there [are] several Abu Sayyaf…members [who] have been captured. They (Philippine military officials) are becoming more and more effective out there,” he said.
“It’s interesting to see that the people are the ones helping the military to capture these Abu Sayyaf Group criminals out there. That shows that whatever the government and the Philippine military are doing with the people is working, because they are trusting them much more,” Coultrup said.
US interests
But Dinampo said Coultrup’s remark about the AFP success alongside with the US forces “is a categorical statement that the permanent stay of US troops in Mindanao is not merely to help defeat a few ASG, but more of its national interest to see to it that US remains the sole superpower.”
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