Washington regains control of naval base in Manila

By Himala dela Cuesta, John Lloyd Hoffman and Gerry Albert Corpuz

MANILA, Philippines- Forces hostile to US military aggression and imperialist war all over the world believed Washington D.C had assumed control in undeclared form its former naval base in the Philippines courtesy of rabid pro-US President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) has joined other leftist groups in condemning the presence of US submarine ship currently docked in Subic for a routine port visit.

“It appears to us that the former US military naval base in Subic is back to its former status as Washington’s biggest naval base outside mainland America. And the big trouble here is that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III is hiding this matter from the collective knowledge of over 100 million Filipinos,” said Pamalakaya national chairperson Fernando Hicap in a press statement.

The Pamalakaya official wondered why the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was not informed about the “visit” of attack submarine USS North Carolina (US-SNN 777), one of the most modern submarines in the US navy. “How come foreign affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario was not even informed about the arrival of this destructive monster in Philippine waters? Why this visit was highly concealed between the US and the Armed Forces of the Philippines?

There is a clear violation of national sovereignty here and the Aquino administration has committed a larger-than-life sell out of our sovereign rights as a people,” said Hicap. Pamalakaya asserted that the highly questionable port call of US attack submarine merely confirmed that the former Subic Naval base is being used as a de facto naval base for arriving American military warships and US troops on rotation basis.

“The Philippine Senate should pursue a full-blown inquiry. The Philippines is back as Washington’s biggest military base outside US without their knowing. The US government is effectively using the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) to pursue the military agenda of the US in the Philippines at all cost,” the militant group noted.

USS North Carolina

Pamalakaya said the arrival of USS North Carolina at the former American naval base in the Philippines is a political-military message to the Aquino administration that it does not favor any diplomatic resolution that would end or ease tension to the current territorial dispute between the Beijing and Manila over the Scarborough Shoal conflict. Contrary to the claim of Palace backed Akbayan party list that the United States is keeping a hands-off policy on the ongoing dispute between the Philippines and China over Scarborough Shoal, Pamalakaya said Washington D.C is very much in the picture and has been exploiting the controversy to compel China to give concessions to US.

“Washington sent USS North Carolina to Subic for a stupid port call to tell the ruling bureaucrats in Manila that it will sabotage any diplomatic resolution because it wants the tension between PH and China to continue to it could pressure Beijing to give concessions to US courtesy of the pro-US government of President Aquino,” said Pamalakaya.

Meanwhile, Pamalakaya challenged the party list group Akbayan to condemn the US government and the Aquino administration for allowing the USS North Carolina submarine to dock in Subic for port call in grave violation of the Philippine sovereignty.

“The Akbayan group is very, very silent on the increasing presence and military intervention of US military strategists and troops in the country under the yearly Balikatan exercises, they parrot the US political line to justify Washington’s full-blown military aggression in the Philippines and in East Asia and the Pacific region,” the group said.

Earlier, the group slammed Akbayan party list for thanking the US government, which a leader of the party list group said did not intervene in the ongoing dispute between the Philippines and Chinese government.

The group said Akbayan acting Marie Chris Cabreros was engaged in intellectual dishonesty when she said US was not involved in the ongoing rift between the Philippines and China. “Why thank the US government? The Barack Obama administration and the interventionist syndicate in Washington D.C are very much involved from day one of the Scarborough Shoal standoff. Mr. Aquino and his poster boys and poster girls in Akbayan are deceiving the Filipino people about the real score on the role of US as a puppet master,” Pamalakaya pointed out.

CPP too

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) also denounced the entry in Philippine waters of the nuclear-capable attack submarine USS North Carolina as a violation of Philippine sovereignty. "The US imperialist war machine entered Philippine waters in total contempt of the territorial integrity of the Philippines, even ignoring the existence of its puppet government," said the CPP.

"Officials of the puppet Aquino regime were caught unaware and presented themselves as dumb and useless in the face of the unannounced entry and surfacing of the USS Carline in Subic Bay last Tuesday."

"The unannounced, unwanted and illegal docking of the nuclear-capable USS North Carolina exhibits the increasing arrogance and contemptuous attitude of the US imperialists with regard to Philippine sovereignty," said the CPP. It pointed out that the USS North Carolina, being what the US touts as among its most advanced submarines, is fully capable of maintaining and firing nuclear rockets and other weapons of mass destruction.

Anti-China scenario

"The US imperialists are making use of the anti-China scenario it has been whipping up in the past several years with the Aquino regime to camouflage and justify the utilization of the Philippines to build up its military presence and conduct power projection operations to control and maintain hegemony over the South China Sea and other crucial sea lanes in the Asia-Pacific region," added the CPP.

"The Filipino people are indignant at how the US imperialist government is making use of the entire Philippines as a vast military base, where it could dock its ships, land its fighter jets, fly its drones, refuel, replenish supplies, conduct repairs, provide rest and recreation for its crew and carry out other crucial and ancillary operations any time and anywhere it wishes," said the CPP.

"Worse, the Philippine government is serving as an imperialist stooge in blindly allowing the US imperialist military to trample on Philippine sovereingty with willfull contempt," added the CPP. "Aquino and his retinue of Amboy officials raise a howl and vigorously wave the flag of 'patriotism' when the Chinese government sails its ships at the edge of Philippine waters, but fall deafeningly silent and fold up the Philippine flag when American military ships and submarines sail and dock within the very scope of Philippine territory."

"The CPP joins the Filipino people in demanding the immediate pullout of the nuclear-capable USS North Carolina submarine. The CPP further reiterates the demand for the abrogation of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, the Visiting Forces Agreement and other unequal treaties between the imperialist US and its puppet government."