ILPS Philippines Denounces US State Secretary Antony Blinken’s Visit to the Philippines

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)-Philippines denounces the visit of US State Secretary Antony Blinken in the Philippines to meet with its new minion, President Marcos Jr. and talk about the imperialist key agreement – the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT). The MDT, one of the world’s longest-lived military treaties, has only tied the Filipino people to subservience to the military dominance, economic policies and geopolitical agenda of US imperialism.

It was just recently when US Deputy State Secretary Wendy Sherman visited the Philippines to discuss the increase of US military facilities in the country through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). Under the EDCA, the Philippines has allowed the construction of US military facilities where military equipment and troops can be propositioned in “agreed locations” anywhere in the country.

The MDT, EDCA and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) are the three pillar military agreements of US imperialism in the country, as they ensure continuous construction of US military bases, permanent presence of US military troops and adherence to US military support and subservience to advance US interests in the country and beyond. Through the years, these agreements have only “perfected” the control and dominance of US imperialism over successive Philippine puppet governments, now represented by the US-Marcos II regime.

The said US imperialist military agreements, furthermore, have been responsible to the murder, prostitution and other heinous crimes against the Filipino people. The country’s wound on the rape and murder of Jennifer Laude by Joseph Scott Pemberton is still fresh. The rape of “Nicole” by Daniel Smith is still being remembered as a mark of US’ atrocities and Philippine government’s subservience to US imperialism. The two cases are just among those cases of abuses and crimes of American troops in the Philippines, which most are not accounted and given justice. The memory of the abuses and murders sorrounding the presence of the Clark Airbase during the time of Martial Law, is still being traumatically remembered by most of the Filipinos alive during that time.

During the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the implementation of the MDT and the RP-US Military Bases Agreement was at its height as the two largest military bases outside the US territory were used as springboards of US war of aggression in Vietnam. The US dragged the Philippines to the war when the country sent troops to Vietnam. Through these military bases, the US was able to project its power in the Asia-Pacific region.

Today, as the economic and political,competition among the big capitalist countries US, Russia and China heightens, the importance of the Asia Pacific region is underscored by the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the US that aims to contain the rise of China and assert US economic, political and military dominance in the region.

It is in this context that the US is sending its envoys in a mad rush to visit its allies in the region including the Philippines. The Blinken visit follows the US policy of full support to Marcos Jr.’s presidency in spite his questionable election victory and the $353 million worth of contempt order issued by the Hawaii District Court in 2011 in relation to the human rights abuses of his family during the time of his father’s rule. The US was quick to set aside the plunder and crimes committed by the Marcos family by giving Marcos Jr. immunity from arrest when he visits the US.

The Filipino people have long rejected US military presence in the Philippines with the termination of the RP – US Mlitary Bases Agreement in 1992. Peace and freedom loving Filipinos protest against the unequal military agreements with the US that only deepen the neo-colonial relationship of the country with the US. These agreements coupled with military aid secure the implementation of the neo-liberal economic policies of the US in the Philippines that only brought widespread, grinding poverty and the country’s underdevelopment.

Similarly, the ILPS Philippines condemns the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan for stoking the already tense relationship between China and Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan hopes to strengthen US partnership with its long time trade and security partners as part of the imperialistic Indo-Pacific strategy.

The ILPS-Philippines calls on all the patriotic and progressive Filipinos and the peoples of the world to reject the US Indo-Pacific Strategy designed by the US for its own hegemonic interests that undermine the peoples’ struggle for democracy, national sovereignty, development and long-lasting peace. ###