Riot
police prepare to prevent protesters from marching closer to the U.S.
Embassy Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 in Manila, Philippines, against the
forthcoming visit of U.S. President Barack Obama. (Photo: AP/Bullit
Marquez)Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the
Philippine capital on Tuesday to demand U.S. troops leave their country,
just days after Philippine President Noynoy Aquino announced he is "
close" to a deal that would open the Philippines to an expanded U.S. military presence.
“Aquino is desperately trying to outdo previous Philippine presidents when it comes to puppetry to the US,"
said
Elmer “Bong” Labog, spokesperson for labor organization Kilusang Mayo
Uno (May First Movement), which organized the demonstration.
Riot police clashed with approximately 300 demonstrators, who carried
signs and banners that read "Obama Not Welcome" and "US Troops Out
Now," near the U.S. embassy in Manila. At one point police attacked the
crowd with truncheons, but no one was seriously injured, the
Associated Press reports.
The protest comes ahead of a planned visit by U.S. President Barack Obama in April, which
will be aimed
at making progress towards an agreement over sustained U.S. military
presence in the Philippines, including in the Subic Bay, which overlooks
the South China Sea.
Social movements in the Philippines
have long opposed
U.S. power over their country, which includes more than five decades of
direct colonial rule and the backing of brutal dictator Ferdinand
Marcos — who was president from 1965 to 1986 until he was overthrown by a
popular movement. Even after Philippine independence, the U.S.
maintained a heavy presence of bases and troops, despite widespread
opposition to the environmental and social harm they spread, including
numerous incidents of sexual assaults and rape of the local population.
While the last U.S. base in the country was shut down in 1992, the
U.S. currently sends 500 troops to the southern Philippines annually for
so-called counter-terrorism purposes, while 6,500 come each year for
training,
according to the Philippine military.
With the cooperation of Aquino, Obama is aggressively pushing to
expand this military presence as part of the U.S. military's pivot to
Asia to hedge against China. The U.S. and Philippine governments have
levied U.S. humanitarian response to Typhoon Haiyan to
build support for a deal.
According to Labong, Aquino "tries to make it appear that the return
of US military bases to the Philippines is part of efforts to help the
country when it is part of the U.S. geopolitical strategy."
_____________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
