Balikatan

Word War

Published on July 20, 2024 in Countercurrent

“Doing determines being.” This Marxist maxim means you’re called a teacher if you teach, a business man if you do business, a politician if you engage in politics, a liar if you habitually lie. If you grab lands from those who cleared and tilled it for generations, you’re a landgrabber. If you make the farmers pay rent for tilling that land, you’re called a landlord.

A spade is called a spade. No pretensions, no duplicity, in the meaning of words.

But in war, deception is one of the sharpest weapons. Hence, we must continually remind ourselves from becoming like the victims of the mythical Adarna—lulled by beautiful tunes into a deep sleep only to become vulnerable and helpless.

In the Philippines there is an ongoing civil war, a national democratic war of a new type, a war of national liberation, the first of a two-stage revolution for genuine social change and democracy. It is led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and fought on many fronts by the New People’s Army (NPA), and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). It is waged through armed struggle in the countryside, supported by democratic though unarmed democratic struggles in the cities and urban centers. It carries the aspirations and interests of the Filipinos masses, thus earning mass support through the years.

Taking the leaf from the ‘doing determines being’ maxim, the Philippine government while it calls itself a democracy is in reality a reactionary and puppet government of US imperialist. It is a dictatorship of local big landlords and compradors. It pretends to serve the people when it acts against the people and serves its own reactionary interests.

Similarly, while being the real terrorists, the imperialist US calls it targets and threats as the “terrorists.” Yet, it is the US who has 700 to 800 known military bases in 80 countries, deploying foreign troops and arms across the globe, and leads its imperialist rivals many times over in aggression and interference in other states.

This imperialist power constantly uses words that actually mean the opposite, lying and deceiving the people, twisting and manufacturing truths. These words can enable the killing and maiming of peoples worldwide. The corporate media in other countries do not even dare utter the word “imperialist” when they report on the alliances and arms support being given by the US to the likes of Zionist and settler colonialist Israel state.

The Philippine reactionary troops have founded their ideological moorings from US imperialism. It is no surprise that its “counterinsurgency” guide seeks to misrepresent and repeatedly whitewash themselves as the good guys. Meanwhile, they slander the revolutionaries, the struggling masses and activists, repeatedly hurling negative accusations at them in hopes to isolate them from the masses. Through the years they have even filled up a dictionary of terms with its opposite meaning. They mean to have these accepted and trap the consciousness of the people in their reality-defying language.

A lot of these words camouflage the reactionaries’ sins against the people. These words may seem harmless such as “salvage” (meaning to save) yet, since the Marcos Sr dictatorship it was used to denote extrajudicial killings. More words to follow:

Balikatan—shoulder to shoulder, mutually helping each other. It is used in the context of US-RP war exercises, which is a brazen lie because it runs counter to the warmth and camaraderie that the word evokes. There is no friendship there when a domineering power like the US use our resources and territories to promote their geopolitical agenda, host their forward deployment of troops and arms, and use the local reactionary troops and government to help them entrench the US imperialist rule. Moreover, they get the chance to unload their junked, obsolete materiel for the Philippine military to use against our own people who are struggling for freedom and democracy.

Bayanihan—collective helping out. It is used in “counterinsugency” plans like Oplan, meaning Operation Plan Bayanihan, but which is more accurate to be called bantay-salakay (Bantay means guard; salakay is attack.The word is used to describe treachery). Seemingly, the “Oplan” is packaged as local development efforts with people’s support. In real terms the word bayanihan conceals the “whole-of-nation” approach to “counterinsurgency”. It is an attempt to mobilize the whole reactionary bureaucracy to work with state forces to crush the revolutionary movement. In real terms, after an attack or crackdown against revolutionary forces in the area, what follows is the return of landlords, compradors or capitalists out to plunder the remaining wealth in the area. Also, the attacking troops who are fed by public funds do so to allow the further exploitation of the people they ought to serve.

Kapayapaan—peace. For the Philippine reactionary state, peace actually denotes peace of the grave, or the silence of its adversaries. It is meant to crush the armed and unarmed uprisings of the Filipino people, and henceforth allow the exploiters and oppressors the freedom to exploit and abuse the country’s resources and people. In this environment only the ruling classes have the right and actual voice to speak and live decently—while the rest are just ants or “terrorists” to be red-tagged, bombed, EJK’d, jailed on trumped-up charges etc. True peace must be based on justice.

Peace negotiations—talking peace. The reactionary state and revolutionaries are on opposite poles when coming to the peace negotiations. For the reactionaries this means the surrender of revolutionary forces, the laying down of arms, and subscribing to the Philippine reactionary constitution. The revolutionaries, however, want to talk peace to resolve the age-old reasons for the armed conflict. They want real meaningful changes, as contained in the 12-point program of the NDFP. Time and time again the reactionary state has reneged on signed and/or initialed agreements, delayed or unilaterally terminated the peace negotiations. But the NDFP has persevered and has always been welcoming of peace talks as the revolutionary alliance wants the resolution of the armed conflict, but only if the roots of the armed conflict are resolved.

Democracy—rule of the majority. The bureaucrat capitalists in Malacanang love to bandy the term as if the government is democratic. The fact they come from political dynasties of local big landlords and compradors clearly belie their claim. The minority elite who control the economic and political power in the country definitely lord it over the poor majority. So unlike the seeds of the people’s democratic government being set up by the revolutionary forces in the countryside with direct representation and participation by, of, and for the people. More importantly, democracy to the revolutionary movement means freedom of the peasantry, the majority of the Filipino people, from the shackles of centuries-old feudalism, freedom from feudal and semifeudal exploitation of the landlord class, and freedom to own and enjoy the fruits of the land they till. It is the main content of the national democratic revolution.

Many more words are used by reactionaries to deodorize their rule and then deceptively attack or repress the people. Words like “modernization,” “democratization,” “friendship,” “maximum tolerance,” “development,” carry with them a lot of reactionary baggage. It would do well to find the real meaning behind the words and continue to expose the reactionaries for all their duplicity and deception. As has been said a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth. With the people’s vigilance and alertness, there is no way the reactionaries can get away with this. (Pinky Ang) ###

What patriotic Filipinos need to know after US-PH Balikatan 2024 wargames

Published on May 18, 2024 in Countercurrent

1. US-China is now nearly approaching actual armed conflict

Following the US-PH Balikatan wargames, it is evidently not just a series of exchanges of fiery words nor saber rattling in the uneasy partnership and rivalry of US and China. It is no secret that US regards China as a rival, and that it has been targetting China for years since declaring the “pivot” or “rebalancing of forces” to Asia a decade ago. Between the hundred-plus year old imperialist US and newly minted imperialist China, their uneasy yet profitable partnership and competition is now shooting red hot sparks in the Asia-Pacific that may ignite into actual armed conflict real soon, but through proxies namely Taiwan and the Philippines.

It doesn’t help that in November 2024 the US presidential elections is taking place. The contenders to the imperialist chief’s seat, including incumbent US President Joseph Biden, direly need a showcase “achievement” in their huge business of war. But their war machineries are troubled in Eurasia, they are more and more being isolated and reviled for supporting the genocide and colonialist occupation of Zionist Israel, and their imperialist encroachment are being resisted through more armed engagements in the Middle East.

The candidates for heading the imperialist US especially Biden are hyping their narrative of fictitious defense of a small underdog ally such as the Philippines against a bully in the name of their partner and rival China. Imperialist US wants to hold on to their self-appointed duty of being a global cop, while in truth it is merely trying hard to maintain if not expand its imperialist stranglehold on territories, resources and trade routes.

During the largest Balikatan 2024 exercises, disregarding the denials and nonsense spouted by US and PH military representatives about supposedly not targeting China (after all, the specific target is Taiwan as proxy for China), the events they mounted obviously pointed to war preparations against US rival China.

Below are some events in the “largest” Balikatan targeting US rival China but using the Philippines as staging area and some Filipino troops.

– Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters in flying missions in Fort Magsaysay, Cagayan and Batanes group of islands near Taiwan;

– Air assaults practice of American and Filipino troops in Batanes, south of 70-mile wide Bashi Channel between Philippines and Taiwan;

– Wargames targetting would-be invaders in Cagayan, firing howitzers, machine guns, javelin anti-tank missiles in La Paz sand dunes in Laoag (practice in island raids);

– Wargames using amphibious combat vehicles in Ulugan or Osyter Bay, Palawan facing the Spratlys (water-borne gunnery live fire training in Palawan) ;

– Marine Corps Ospreys (drones) flying over Calayan Island;

– Using Filipino patriotic sentiments against Chinese incursions, use of water cannon on fishermen, research vessels and tourists to justify US intervention while attacking the patriotic sentiments of Filipinos against both the Chinese incursions and the presence of tens of thousands of US troops using howitzers, amphibious combat vehicles, war choppers, among others;

– “Successfully” sinking a decommissioned PH navy ship (made in China, they said) as practice in Laoag, Ilocos;

– Scuttling joint exploration deals in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea likely entered into by Chinese leaders and bureaucrat capitalists in the Philippines.

2. US increasing combat strength vs rival China in the Asia-Pacific

The imperialist US displays a cunning use of neocolonies and “allies” through expanded basing and upgraded treaty partnerships with the Philippines and other allies in the Asia-Pacific. They seek to intensify power projection with costs being shared or shouldered by allies and neocolonies.

Toward this projection the Balikatan 2024 showcased the use of these facilities by troops of the imperialist US. It also revealed further building the US troops require to operate its war machines and house their troops.

The US is building or expanding military facilities inside Philippine military bases, PR-promoting the free and opportunistic use of Philippine territory and troops as for “improving” those facilities and upgrading their skills and interoperability. But, the point of “improving” these is for their use of it to project power in Asia and deter rivals such as China. At the same time, US provides information (intelligence), arms, training and other aid to the AFP, using these US military facilities and troops, to interfere in the civil war between the reactionary AFP and revolutionary New People’s Army.

In the latest “largest” Balikatan, US troops operated from EDCA bases in Luzon, such as in Fort Magsaysay, Cagayan, and Palawan.These bases hosted US troops, supplies, weapons, ammunitions and equipment, and when the bases aren’t enough during the Balikatan, they use the surrounding clearing.

Protests that the “rotational” has become permanent presence of US troops in the Philippines have forcibly been muted by EDCA. In this Balikatan 2024, for example, US troops from one of its infantry brigades have been in the Philippines much earlier, having participated in another “largest” Salaknib war exercise, and they are said to leave only in June even though Balikatan 2024 ends May 10.

A combat aviation brigade commander (Col. Matt Scher) who visited the aviators encamped at the clearing beside Lal-lo Airport during the Balikatan 2024 was quoted as saying his brigade has been coming to the Philippines regularly since 2014. Their missions in the war exercises are parts of a series of exercises to test their units’ ability to deploy forces across the (Asia-Pacific) region.

With the ever expanding “largest” Balikatan, the US is seeing the use of its nearly doubled number of “agreed” bases. In November 2023, following last year’s “largest” Balikatan, they reopened with puppet Philippine leaders a 10,000-foot runway north of Manila at Cesar Basa Air Base. Philippine Inquirer report that month said the US paid a total of $66M for Basa projects, including a warehouse and fuel storage tanks. This year, the U.S. Defense Department has earmarked another $35 million to build a parking apron for transient aircraft there.

3. US freely made use of Philippine military camps, clearings, flying and fishing zones as military staging ground for testing warships, warplanes and other equipment

Imperialist US used the Philippines as staging ground for showcasing and testing various war vehicles, weapons and equipment. These inlude even those with dangerous history while being developed, the amphibious combat vehicles used at the Balikatan 2024 in Oyster Bay, Palawan on May 4.

Mishaps in using the said ACVs had reportedly killed and injured US marines. In Palawan, Philippines, these ACVs, the newest armored asset of US Marines Corp, saw its maiden deployment. According to a news release on its first deployment, the ACVs were organized into assault sections and participated in a live-fire gunnery drill in Oyster Bay, shooting at shore-based targets with their remotely controlled automatic grenade launchers.

During the Balikatan 2024 the Philippines was freely used by the imperialist US troops and allies to fire howitzers, missiles, machine guns, fly drones and helicopters, sink a decommissioned ship, regardless of the cost in destruction of marine life in Palawan, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan and Batanes. Balikatan even turned an international airport in Cagayan into an exclusive airport for its use during the week it was flying warplanes and helicopters between the province, Fort Magsaysay and Batanes.

Rent-free, the US freely used not just the AFP camps in EDCA “agreed locations” but also its surrounding lands, such as the clearing outside Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan which is the size of several football fields.

4. Looming US-China war not for the benefit of Filipinos

Under the US-Marcos2, the Philippines has agreed to almost double the agreed locations of US military facilities, and to continue hosting “largest” Balikatan war exercises.

Since the signing of EDCA in 2014 up to the doubling of agreed bases under Marcos 2, the US has used Chinese intrusions as justification. But the US presence, no, dominance, over the Philippine military and government has historically never shown any benefit to Filipinos. On the contrary. The US has continued to arm and support its puppet government and reactionary troops to brutally prevent the new national democratic revolutionaries from winning.

Now the US is clearly dragging the Philippines into a looming US proxy war against China. They are using the Philippines as staging ground for its warships and warplanes, and the reactionary Filipino troops as part of their attack forces. While Filipinos also staunchly defend their territories against China, it does not mean their patriotism is reserved only against the newly minted imperialist China. Even more so, it should be turned against the imperialist US who has been trying hard to deceive and throttle Philippine sovereignty since the US-Fil war in 1899. (Pinky Ang)###

Imperialism means war, imperialism means terrorism

Published on May 15, 2024 in Countercurrent

Before they underwent massive PR makeovers in Hollywood movies, the vampires are some of the best graphic tools used to explain the secret of capitalist accumulation. In Das Kapital, Karl Marx describes capital as “dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.”

In other words, capitalists gain and expand their capital by sucking their laborers’ values, just as the mythical vampires drain their victims’ blood and lifesource for them to survive and become stronger. But while capitalism lives and grows stronger by sucking the blood of its victims, in doing so it encounters existential crises as its bloodsucking ultimately leads to scantier volume of blood to suck.

In Karl Marx’s summary: capitalism digs its own grave.

Today, as capitalism has globally spread its dominance, what monstrous vampire has capitalism become? Capitalism has reached its highest historical stage of development, described as monopoly capitalism or capitalist imperialism, since the early 20^th century.

At the time, Russian proletarian leader Vladimir Lenin said in the preface of the German and French edition of his popular outline, Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism:

“Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of the financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world by a handful of ‘advanced’countries.”

At the time, the “three powerful world marauders armed to the teeth”—America, Great Britain, and Japan—involved the whole world in their war over the sharing of their booty.”

True to its vampiric likeness, when capitalist imperialism made its global debut, its bloody, merciless party was the first world war. It was a war between rival monopoly capitalists or imperialists, for the purpose of deciding who among the rival financial marauders was to receive the lion’s share of control over the economies of the world.

From the first to the second world war, to the “cold war” and today’s so-called “war on terrorism”, all are wars launched by imperialists to seize control of resources, territories, trade routes, and spheres of power. In the latter cases of “cold war” and “war on terrorism”, it is no longer just a war among imperialist rivals. It has become also a war between imperialists and states or parties waging proletariat revolution, national liberation, or struggles for self-determination away from capitalist rule.

Below is a brief review of imperialism’s systemic compulsion to launch war, mainly to remind ourselves that over the years, this breed of vampire has not only become more merciless, rapacious and gluttonous when it reached its imperialist stage of development. It has also become more duplicitous and insidious. The fact that the dominant media hardly mention the word imperialism when it reports about the wars that are supported, armed and directly or covertly being waged by imperialist states is one of the biggest indications of its insidiousness.

Imperialism 101

Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the successful Russian proletariat revolution in 1917, previously listed the general features that distinguished imperialism from its early stages of capitalism. A cursory look at world events today shows that these distinguishing features remain true, even if the names and modes by which these happen may have varied over the years:

the highest and final stage of capitalism, imperialism, is the thoroughly parasitic and decaying stage of capitalism. The capitalists do not contribute at all to social production, yet they amass for themselves profits by extracting and appropriating surplus values through their ownership of capital, stocks, bonds, securities, derivatives or other ways they have devised to own, monopolize and maximize capital;

the ruling capitalists have become finance oligarchs, after industrial and finance capital merged: so now they jointly reap profits not just from exporting surplus manufactures but also surplus capital by way of foreign investments and loans;

monopoly firms of every imperialist state protect their own interests, but for these, they also combine and compete with monopoly firms of other imperialist states, seeking control of “spheres of influence” or territories to secure resources, low-cost labor, captive markets and supply routes;

imperialist states advance the interests of their monopoly capitalists and the international groupings they have formed or joined, maintaining a power structure between imperialists and “client-states” to install an economic structure where the imperialists can exploit the proletariat, oppress nations and peoples;

to keep its cycles of production and profit-taking running and profitable, competition between imperialist states for territories and “spheres of influence” is never-ending; and

imperialism breeds war, as every imperialist power or alliance is driven to redivide the world to feed their growing economic and military power.

System-generated compulsion to war

When imperialism is described as the most decaying stage of capitalism it means that as a system, it no longer has positive developments—efforts spent to evade or withstand its chronic crises of overproduction destroy rather than uplift its productive forces. It can no longer march history to unprecedented heights.

Organic in the DNA of the capitalist system is its drive for profits—even if the means to achieve it would eventually destroy its golden goose, like its own workers and markets, its “own” domestic industries, the environment, the relations of peoples and nations, and culture. In short, by default its operations lead to crisis of overproduction that it cannot resolve.

But no capitalist or imperialist will let that happen without a fight. To imperialists the recourse left to maintain itself is to wrest control of markets and territories from rival imperialists. And, prevent socialist states from wresting away their territories and ideological sway.

Imperialists in the business of war

Today we are bombarded by wars and pestered by saber-rattling. There are wars raging in the Ukraine, in Israel, in the Red Sea between Yemen, Iran and US “allies” and the West. Much destruction has been wreaked on “rogue” states previously targeted by the US-led imperialist “allies” who previously brought war to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and before that, in the Korean peninsula, Vietnam, and where wars for national liberation and right to self-determination are being fought, like in the Philippines and Colombia.

As we write this, war threatens to break out in the Indo-Pacific region over Taiwan. Like in the war in Ukraine which is a war between imperialist US with imperialist European allies in NATO against Russia, the looming war in Taiwan will be a proxy war between the US and its regional allies against their rival China.

To counter China, the US is itching to use “treaty allies” such as the Philippines in the Indo-Pacific. To keep its foothold and expand against China in the Indo-Pacific region, the US has recently been ratcheting its stockpiling of weapons and positioning of forces in its military bases in Japan, South Korea, and in the Philippines—where its military “facilities” are inside Philippine bases by virtue of the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

In the Philippines, the US is building more military bases and installations, and is continuously and more frequently holding joint wargames and exercises with Filipino reactionary troops to better train them in using US and its military allies’ weapons and ammunitions, warships and warplanes. They call it enhancing interoperability.

In the Indo-Pacific, specifically in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea. the US claims the war provocations are for ensuring “freedom of navigation”. In all the ongoing and prospective theaters of war, the imperialists claim they are fighting “terrorism” and/or defending “democracy” (or what some Western media define as Western-style democracy). The latter simply means holding regular elections in which the people could vent their frustrations by choosing and voting candidates for public office from a pool of supposed traditional leaders, who are in fact stooges or representatives of the imperialists. Against China and Russia, the US and European imperialists even invoke “human rights” when they indiscriminately bomb cities, including hospitals and public service facilities.

All the above are just some of the latest examples of imperialists, particularly the US imperialists, who are currently at war in various countries and regions or itching for war in certain “hot spots”, and the justifications they concoct feed the dominant media reports about their aggression. The truth is, the imperialist needs war and is compelled to go to war that kill and maim millions of people because they have military-industrial enclaves whose thirst for profits couldn’t be quenched.

More importantly, as Lenin observed in his meticulous study of capitalist imperialism:

“(T)he characteristic feature of imperialism is precisely that it strives to annex not only agricultural regions, but even highly industrialised regions because the fact that the world is already divided up (between imperialist states) obliges those contemplating a new division to reach out for any kind of territory, and because an essential feature of imperialism is the rivalry between a number of great powers in the striving for hegemony…”

This is particularly stark as imperialist US, for example, maintains its support of Israel in the latter’s genocidal war against the Palestinians. The US uses Israel as a base for encroaching into the Middle East (or West Asia). The US has similar intentions in keeping the Korean peninsula divided between North and South and also to counter China.

In the Philippines, a strategic archipelago for projecting military power in the Indo-Pacific region, the imperialist US has maintained its seven-decade “iron-clad” mutual defense treaty with its former colony and puppet-government partner. Nowadays, they are building more military bases and talking about nuclear power.

Amid all these imperialist scheming, the Filipino people (and the people everywhere else) are justified in opposing militarization and imperialist wars of aggression. They are justified in opposing huge increases in the national budget allocations for highly-destructive arms purchases; the presence of foreign military bases, troops, facilities, and war materiel stockpiles; all military alliances and agreements with imperialist US and its allies; and the saber-rattling and calling for proxy war in Taiwan against China.

Moreover, the Filipino people and people everywhere who are seeking and fighting for national liberation are justified in continuing to resist and to overthrow their local and foreign oppressors.(Pinky Ang)###

“Back” in the Claws of the American Eagle

Published on March 22, 2018 in Editorial

Let’s start with a bit of recent history.

In the last quarter of 2001, then US President George W. Bush launched his government’s vindictive global “war on terror” directed at Al Qaeda, the jihadist group that planned and carried out the worldwide-shocking September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York. Bush called on other nation’s leaders for support, with this foreboding line: “If you’re not with me, you’re against me!”

Bush gave his war this high-minded name: “Operation Enduring Freedom.”

The only Asian head of state to publicly respond was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She lustily welcomed Bush’s designation of the Philippines as the “second front” of that war. “Oplan Enduring Freedom-Philippines (OEF-P)” opened up the country to the large-scale reentry of US troops (US Special Operations Command Pacific deployed 1,500 soldiers to support the government in fighting the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah).

Of course, US troops had been in the country since 1946 with two large bases: Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base. But in 1991 the American troops were practically ousted, after the Philippine Senate decided to end the RP-US Bases Agreement. Their comeback was facilitated by the deceitfully-crafted RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) which, under new leadership, the Senate ratified in 1999.

Since January 2002, a new mode of annual joint RP-US military exercises was begun. Dubbed as Balikatan, it prescribed joint exercises in actual war zones, particularly in western Mindanao. Teams of fully-armed American soldiers, as “advisers” and “trainers,” accompanied Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) troops in combat operations mainly against the Abu Sayyaf.

A full-scale war to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf was subsequently planned. The US set up an all-American Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF) inside a Philippine base in Zamboanga City. Batches of US troops, 600 per, were deployed on rotating tours of duty such that, at any one time, there were that number of US soldiers in the country.

That arrangement ended in February 2015. The US removed its JSOTF in the wake of the botched anti-terrorist operation, involving US military assistance, which ended up in the Mamasapano massacre of 44 officials and men of the PNP Special Action Force. But the 14-year drive to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf failed.

Fast forward to 2017.

On September 1 last year, US Defense Secretary James Mattis designated—in total secrecy both in the US and the Philippines—“Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines”(OPE-P) as the Trump administration’s “overseas contingency operation” in Southeast Asia. Unlike in 2001, when Bush and Arroyo went high profile, this time Donald Trump was silent. So was Rodrigo Duterte.

As detailed in a quarterly report to the US Congress by the US Lead Inspector General, Glenn A. Fine, (dated Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2017), what Mattis officially launched was a bilateral comprehensive campaign “to assist the (AFP) in their effort to isolate, degrade, and defeat affiliates of the Islamic State (of Iraq and Syria) and other terrorist organizations that do not profess a connection to ISIS (emphasis ours).”

(This editorial’s title uses the word “back” to reflect Duterte’s abandonment of his erstwhile public stance to “move away from the US.” In his speech in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2016, he reiterated that he would abrogate executive agreements with the US, if necessary, to pursue an independent foreign policy. He said: “I want, in the next two years, my country free from the presence of foreign military troops. The Philippines can live without the assistance of the US…”).

OPE-P is fully funded by the US. In 2017, the US Department of Defense (DoD) provided US$16 million from its Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Fund. Its 2018 and 2019 budgets have not yet been determined, pending completion of the funding requirements being identified by the DoD, the Pacific Area Command (PACOM), and US military departments concerned.

It has no termination period. It will end, says the report, “when the AFP no longer requires US military assistance to address its internal terrorist threat.” Given the persistence of the Abu Sayyaf, the Maute group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters—much more, of the New People’s Army (in irrational anger in December, Duterte declared the NPA as a “terrorist organization” along with the Communist Party of the Philippines)—when can the AFP say it no longer need US aid?

The report points out that, “as with all US military operations in the Philipines, OPE-P is conducted at the request of the Philippine government.” US and Philippine military leaders, it adds, meet annually at 4-star level to discuss the scope of the coming year’s bilateral defense cooperation and training programs.

Under OPE-P, the report notes, the US special operations forces continue to be “advising and assisting the AFP.” All military operations are supposedly conducted “by, with, and through Filipino forces.” This qualification, used since the first Balikatan exercises, is intended to shield the US “advisers” and “trainers” from being called to account for human rights violations in the conduct of military operations.

Obviously sanitized, the report to the US Congress has not dwelt on the political and geopolitical implications of the OPE-P’s implementation. Let’s therefore look at some of the reactions to its launching in September.

Prof. Roland Simbulan of the University of the Philippines, who has written several books and articles about US military intervention in the country and elsewhere, said:

“(OPE-P) marks a new era of US military intervention in the Philippines. Internally, it is directed against the Philippine Left and externally, (at using) the Philippines as springboard to reassert US military power in the Pacific. It is Trump’s way of supporting the creeping authoritarianism in the country while using US military force and assets to make sure that Duterte does not change [his stand] on US military presence [in relation to China].”

Sociology Prof. William Robinson of the University of California concurred with Simbulan’s view. He backstopped it by citing historical precedents when the US used the Philippines as “principal rearguard and staging point” for its interventionist wars against North Korea (1950s) and against North Vietnam (1960s-70s). “The US military presence was also the hinge around which the counterinsurgency war was organized against the NPA in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Prof. Jose Ma. Sison, chief political consultant of the NDFP peace negotiating panel, observed:

“It is very clear to Trump that the Duterte regime is securely a puppet of US imperialism. All the major treaties, agreements and arrangements that have tied the Philippines to the US economically, politically, culturally, and militarily remain intact. Trump’s comment reflects the fact that the US dominates the Philippines as its ‘most prime real estate’ in Southeast Asia and is an important forward base of the US in the East Asia-Pacific region.”

As to the NPA’s response to OPE-P, national spokesperson Ka Oris undauntedly stated:

“Expanding the mass base, strengthening and expanding the NPA through trainings and massive recruitments, making sure the revolutionary work is done in a comprehensive manner—to ensure that the guerilla forces and bases can withstand and outlast the relentless attacks from enemy forces.”

These, Ka Oris said, must be done “alongside the strengthening and adaptation of the NPA and the people to US sophisticated weapons, such as surveillance and attack drones, that the (AFP) forces are already using against civilian communities.”�Last words from Prof. Sison:

“It would be politically and financially costly, at the expense of the people, if the Duterte regime relies solely on its ‘all-out-war’ policy, Oplan Kapayapaan and Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines and tries to bribe the AFP, PNP and paramilitaries to go on a rampage of mass murder with P25,000 for the killing of every suspected or maliciously listed ‘NPA member.’ ”

Let’s follow through how this revived US imperialist “contingency operation” will proceed, and be militantly ready to expose and oppose every anti-people project it will launch.

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