Balikatan critics living in time warp — Golez

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez belittled critics of the ongoing joint RP-US "Balikatan" military exercises, describing them as self-styled nationalists living in the past.

Golez made the remark yesterday at the Ciudad Fernandina forum in San Juan after former Quezon Rep. Wigberto Tañada said the Balikatan exercises were "instruments of insecurity."

Tañada has launched a campaign to gather one million signatures against the war games.

"It’s a pity that he wants to put us in a time warp," Golez said, adding that Tañada’s brand of nationalism was haunted by "ghosts of the past" and was actually a disservice to the nation.

"Balikatan’s detractors’ minds are clogged with ghosts and goblins of the past," Golez said, apparently referring to several historical events that have made many Filipinos oversensitive to American involvement in Philippine affairs.

The Philippines was a US colony from 1898 to 1946 and Filipino statesmen, including Tañada’s late father Lorenzo, were at the forefront of acrimonious debates on independence, war reparations, veterans’ benefits, one-sided trade and military agreements, criminal prosecution of erring US servicemen, thousands of abandoned Amerasian children and leftover toxic waste, among other issues.

Golez, a graduate of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, argued that if "nationalists" keep on resurrecting old issues against Americans, they must also denounce the Spaniards for their abuses during their 300-year colonization of the country.

He said "nationalists" like Tañada, a former senator, should also demonstrate against Hispanisms in Philippine languages and take their xenophobia a step further and discard Filipinos’ Hispanic names.

Golez urged "anti-American" Filipinos to respect the fact that many Filipinos identify closely with American culture and even aspire to emigrate to the US.

He also belittled Tañada’s campaign to gather one million signatures against the war games, adding that even former President Corazon Aquino was not able to gather one million signatures against the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Meanwhile, militant groups continued their campaign against the Balikatan exercises with one group of artists, called Sining Bugkos, vowing to cancel their Valentine’s Day dates to demonstrate for national sovereignty.

An activist Catholic church group, called Kairos Philippines, also launched a "peace mission" to urge Christians to unite against the war games and denounce President Arroyo for her treachery against the Filipino people.