A broad anti-war coalition uniting over sixty organizations around the country on Friday scored the LOVFA's pronouncement that the stay of American forces in the country is legal and that there are no US bases in the South.
"This is clearly a case of feigned ignorance at best or a deliberate cover-up at worst," said Mitzi Chan, one of the Stop the War Coalition-Philippines' spokespersons, in a press statement issued to this reporter via internet mail.
"The LOVFA members are either blinded by their ideological preference for US basing or by the Philippine military's dependence on US military aid, genuinely ignorant of the ways by which the forms of US basing have been transformed in recent years, or are deliberately attempting to cover-up the US bases in order to perpetuate their stay," Chan added.
"Senator Biazon could not be unaware that the US military has been transforming the form that US military bases take. They may no longer look like Subic and Clark, they may not fly American flags – but they are still US bases in essence and purpose regardless of the nomenclature that pro-US politicians prefer," Chan argued.
According to Chan, "What the US has in Zamboanga City – in the form of the JSOTFP's headquarters inside Camp Navarro – is exactly the kind of bases that the framers of the 1987 Constitution had in mind when they decided to ban the presence of foreign bases in the country."
Chan dismissed Biazon's statement that "American facilities are administrative in nature and not combat in nature" as particularly "lame."
Assailing Adan's efforts to sell US presence to the public, Chan said, "The VFA commissioner has an impossible job: On the one hand, he is mandated to go after Americans who commit any wrongdoing in the country. On the other hand, it also appears to be his task to tell the public that the Americans can't possibly do anything wrong."
Stop the War Coalition challenged other Senators and Congressmen to stand up for peace and for the constitution by seeing for themselves how it is violated by visiting the US facilities in the South.
It also supports calls for an independent investigation, saying the LOVFA's pronouncements at this stage indicate how compromised its conclusions may be, given that Biazon was one of the main proponents of the VFA. Press Release
"This is clearly a case of feigned ignorance at best or a deliberate cover-up at worst," said Mitzi Chan, one of the Stop the War Coalition-Philippines' spokespersons, in a press statement issued to this reporter via internet mail.
"The LOVFA members are either blinded by their ideological preference for US basing or by the Philippine military's dependence on US military aid, genuinely ignorant of the ways by which the forms of US basing have been transformed in recent years, or are deliberately attempting to cover-up the US bases in order to perpetuate their stay," Chan added.
"Senator Biazon could not be unaware that the US military has been transforming the form that US military bases take. They may no longer look like Subic and Clark, they may not fly American flags – but they are still US bases in essence and purpose regardless of the nomenclature that pro-US politicians prefer," Chan argued.
According to Chan, "What the US has in Zamboanga City – in the form of the JSOTFP's headquarters inside Camp Navarro – is exactly the kind of bases that the framers of the 1987 Constitution had in mind when they decided to ban the presence of foreign bases in the country."
Chan dismissed Biazon's statement that "American facilities are administrative in nature and not combat in nature" as particularly "lame."
Assailing Adan's efforts to sell US presence to the public, Chan said, "The VFA commissioner has an impossible job: On the one hand, he is mandated to go after Americans who commit any wrongdoing in the country. On the other hand, it also appears to be his task to tell the public that the Americans can't possibly do anything wrong."
Stop the War Coalition challenged other Senators and Congressmen to stand up for peace and for the constitution by seeing for themselves how it is violated by visiting the US facilities in the South.
It also supports calls for an independent investigation, saying the LOVFA's pronouncements at this stage indicate how compromised its conclusions may be, given that Biazon was one of the main proponents of the VFA. Press Release
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