RP-US relations: Playing dumb and dumber?

Was transgender Jennifer Laude killed in a “hate crime?” This issue is all over the papers. However we won’t know the truth about this until the identified suspect US Marine PFC Joseph Pemberton is taken off the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu in Olongapo City and brought to trial. Was Laude killed because the US Marine thought he was getting a girl and instead got a transgender? This will have to be established. But that’s no reason to kill the transgender. For sure this is going to be a test on whether the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) will be beneficial for RP-US relations.

A Sept. 16, 2011 article from Bulalat.com, a leftist publication, said that the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) is “The mother of all unequal military treaties and agreements.” Indeed the MDT is 63 years old and let me say it here that because of the presence of the US military bases in the Philippines, it gave the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) reason to tag the presidents of the Philippines as a “puppet” of the US government. There was some truth to those allegations until Sept. 13, 1991, when the Philippine Senate voted not to ratify the US bases agreement.

Of course, what the Philippine Senators did was merely put into writing what was the reality on the ground… that the US military had already left their military bases in a huff, thanks to the unexpected eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. But it had a positive effect to the Philippines… the nearly daily street protests by Leftist organizations linked with the CPP suddenly disappeared as the US military left.

But there was a debilitating effect to the Philippine military when the Americans lost their military bases here. We once had one of the best air forces in Asia in the 1950s when we had squadrons of P-51 Mustangs, which were later replaced by frontline F-86 Sabre jets and then in the 1970s we had the F-5 Freedom Fighters. Now the Philippine Air Force is all air!

With the US bases out, the Philippines should have strengthened our military with many other western nations. But the AFP deteriorated so badly, it allowed the communist insurgency to continue with its struggle to establish a communist government for four decades. This is not to mention the Muslim separatist insurgency our nation has to endure. But what the AFP lacked in military equipment, we made up for the Filipino soldier’s bravery.

Then comes Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed by the Aquino regime, which is now in the Supreme Court (SC) for questions whether this violated the Constitution or not. Meanwhile the cause-oriented groups, many of them allied front organizations of the CPP now have another reason to march in protest for the killing of Laude. Thanks to VFA or EDCA, the Aquino regime has brought the Philippines back to square one. It’s a sense of deja vu… with the 70s back all over again!

Don’t get me wrong, Filipinos love Americans and America, and Filipinos are a grateful lot… they welcome the US military especially in times of natural disasters the latest of which was when the US Navy came to help the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda. But when America props up the Philippine government through the President making them their puppets on a leash… Filipinos don’t like this happening to them. Let me say it here further that the Leftist groups may be the noisiest…but they are still a minority in the Philippines.

Remember the dark days of Martial Law? When you can hear the talk in the coffee houses of Manila with American’s saying, “Marcos maybe a SOB but he is our SOB! There was truth in that statement and it was proven when at the height of the EDSA Revolution, then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos called US Congressman Paul Laxalt for advice and the latter told him “To cut and cut cleanly.” The rest as they say is history!

The advice by Rep. Laxalt was very well played out by the mosquito press (they were the credible press in those days because mainstream media was owned by Marcos cronies and considered a Marcos propaganda machinery) and it was the best proof that America had propped up the Marcos Dictatorship…despite the corruption allegations thrown against the Marcoses who had expensive real estate properties in New York City and Long Island. This gave the ordinary Filipino an idea that the US government helps our corrupt politicians who have only managed to keep the Filipinos poor.

Today corruption has reached the topmost officials of the Aquino regime with the top police chief Alan Purisima who is facing corruption charges, but still supported by President Aquino. Vice President Jejomar Binay also faces corruption charges and what is worse in both counts is, the Ombudsman hasn’t made her move. So the question is, do the Americans know this or are they playing dumb and dumber because Pres. Noy is their puppet?

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