If the Americans leave, will Filipinos be truly independent?

As a child begins his life, he aims directly and energetically toward functional independence. Like an arrow released from its bow, he veers straight and swift to acquire speech and movement. If the child is not hindered but instead encouraged, this mobility allows him to gain independence. This can be compared to how a country acquires independence. But are conditions in our country promoting the national will to develop our selves? (I wrote this column in March 1991).

Can we get things done?

Can we stand on our own feet, and race against other developing countries?

DECS Secretary Isidro Cariño rushes his staff to finish their tasks, saying “I have only three minutes left and there is much to be done.” The same sentiment was expressed by Governor Bitay Lacson regarding his program to re-construct Negros Occidental. Lacson told the Senate-Congressional Education Commission surveying school problems in 18 regions “Time is running short. I am not after being re-elected but in getting things done.” These good men, new in politics, fear both the lack of time and the prospect of old politicians taking over and destroying what they have begun.

Are we still schizophrenic?

For the past few weeks, the PLDT-TV 30-seconder focused on the “schizophrenia” of our country. A gentleman says, “We are clean, and yet we are dirty. We take a bath everyday but we’re surrounded by litter… we just don’t care.”

Is it merely conditioning of the environment? Rizal Park was once an empty lot of overgrown cogon grass and litter. When it was cleaned, landscaped, and provided with enough waste cans, the people did not dirty it. In the ‘60s, Singapore looked like Escolta, a small central city with a dirty estero. Sampan houseboats crowded the inner city river. Today, Singapore has an international look, resembling a lush green English park. Their government invested heavily on a good city plan. New zoning laws imposed heavy fees or penalties of imprisonment on violators. Hong Kong in the fifties looked pathetic with only three major hotels and Mainland Chinese refugees squatting on the mountainside. Twenty years later, it’s filled up with international hotels and buildings. The tiny island looks like a pincushion fully studded with hotels.

By contrast, Manila city authorities have done nothing to clear the esteros. Squatters inhabit the railroad and riverside, endangering their lives. Zoning seems to be nonexistent. Squatters settle in the children’s park, or establish their own “town” along the boulevard. Smokey Mountain could have been leveled and converted into flower plant market, pleasing to the eye and a source of income. Allowing people to settle down here seems illegal and cruel.

Philippines, among 24 countries hosting  US facilities

The Philippines is one of 24 countries hosting US facilities, thus ensuring world peace. The other countries are Panama, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Greenland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, England, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Belgium Portugal, Italy, Greece, Kosovo, Djibouti Turkey, Korea, Japan, Singapore and Australia. The US Military facilities contribute to global stability and enable the US and the Soviet Union to negotiate on nuclear arms reductions.

They also enhance rapid economic expansion in the Philippines. Through nearby straits such as Malacca, Lombok and Sunda, about 50 percent of Asia’s oil and 80 percent of the Philippines’ oil is imported by sea. The Philippines is located at a crossroad between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. It is adjacent to the Asian mainland and near critical straits that connect the Pacific with the Indian Ocean and the Middle East.

The Phl-US mutual defense treaty has helped maintain world peace for 70 years

The US military facilities in the Philippines-US Mutual Defense Treaty have helped maintain world peace for 70 years since the end of World War II. Thus the Military Bases Agreement (MBA) is based on the history of Philippine-American brotherhood. On Dec. 8, 1941, the US fleet at Pearl Harbor was destroyed by Japan. The Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore all fell to the Japanese. This taught America and the Philippines the value of an ever-ready defense program.

In December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the foundation for the modern Military Bases Agreement (MBA). “I give to the Philippines my solemn pledge that their freedom will be redeemed and their independence established and protected,” he said.

In 1943, President Manuel Quezon affirmed the importance of the bases as a “question of our future security and safeguarding forever the mutual interests of the United States and the Philippines in the Pacific.” Later, the destruction of enemy merchant ships in the Pacific and the fast movement of the American carrier fleet contributed to General MacArthur’s historic return in October 1944.

The MBA has undergone more than 40 amendments since it was signed in 1947. The original agreement provided the US with a 99-year-old lease to more than 20 base sites, covering 250,000 hectares in 13 provinces.

Today, they occupy some 10,000 hectares. The Serrano – Bohlen Memorandum of Agreement shortened the fixed term of the original agreement from 99 to 25 years (1966-1991).

The 1979 amendment turned Clark Airbase over to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. From the base area of 53,000 hectares, 3,760 were designated as the United States facility within the Philippines base. Clark Air Base is the headquarters of the US Thirteenth Air Force.

The largest American unit at Clark is the Third Tactical Fighter Wing, which together with the Fifth Fighter Wing of the Philippine Air Force, contributes to the air defense of the Philippines.

Under a continuing program called “Cope Thunder,” and with permission from the Philippine government, US forces employ the Crow Valley complex for highly realistic combat practice missions.

Under the 1979 amendment Philippine sovereignty was recognized with the establishment of the Subic Naval Base Command (SUBCOM) placed under the Fleet Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy. Some 6,000 hectares were designed as the US Facility. Cubi Point Naval Air Station (NAS) is the primary land base for the Seventh Fleet’s aircraft where their ships are in point. From there, P-3 Orion aircraft fly off to monitor submarines in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.

The ship repair facility extends the most obvious direct support to Seventh Fleet vessels. It has three floating dry docks where almost any repair on a naval vessel can be accommodated. Under the MBA as amended, the United States may also use other premises in the country. The largest of these are: Camp John Hay Air Station in Baguio, used as a rest and recreation facility, Wallace Air Station in La Union, a joint RP-US air defense radar complex; the Naval Communications Station in San Miguel, Zambales and several subordinate communication sites; and Camp O’Donnel in Capas, Tarlac, a radio transmitter site.

We provide a vital link in the global chain of defense

Let me reiterate that majority of us are pro-COUNTRY. The Philippines can retain her sovereignty without separating from the brotherhood of nations, without spurning America who acts consistently in our favor. As US Ambassador Nicholas Platt (1987-1991) says, “In our Mutual interest” a write-up of the factual information of the MBA, “We must reach out to one another. We need not fear losing our identity. In fact, through our steady confidence and cooperation with one another, we provide a vital link in the global chain of defense, which protects all the lives of the brotherhood on of nations on this earth.”

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