MANILA, Philippines – As the controversy regarding the actions of US militarytroops in southern Mindanao snowballs, Focus on the Global South, aBangkok-based international research institute that has been monitoring US military actions in the country, raises another question: What is a US base construction unit spending $14.4 million or about Php 650 million on in Mindanao?
In a little-reported development that has come to the attention of the institute, the US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) had in June 6, 2007, awarded a six-month $14.4-million contract to a certain “Global Contingency Services LLC” of Irving, Texas for “operations support” for the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P).[i]
According to its own website, the NAVFAC is the unit within the US military that is in charge of providing the US Navy with “operating, support, and training bases.” It “manages the planning, design, and construction and provides public works support for US Naval shore installations around the world.” Among their business lines are “bases development” and “contingency engineering.”
The JSOTF-P is the unit established by the US Special Operations Command that has been stationed in the southern Philippines since 2002 and which Focus on the Global South believes has established a new kind of US basing in the country.[ii]
According to the announcement by the Pentagon, the contract awarded to Global Contingency Services LLC includes “all labor, supervision, management, tools, materials, equipment, facilities, transportation,incidental engineering, and other items necessary to provide facilities support services.”
Global Contingency Services LLC is a partnership between DynCorp International, Parsons Global Services, and PWC Logistics. The $14.4 million contract is actually part of a bigger $450-million five-year contract for Global Contingency Services to “provide a full range of world-wide contingency and disaster-response services, including humanitarian assistance and interim or transitional base-operating support services.”
According to DynCorp’s website, this will include “facility operations and maintenance; air operations; port operations; health care; supply and warehousing; galley; housing support; emergency services; security, fire, and rescue; vehicle equipment; and incidental construction.”[iii]
Contingency Response Services LLC describes its work as encompassing“operating forces support,” “community support,” and “base support.”[iv]
According to the Defense Industry Daily publication, the contract also includes “morale, welfare, and recreation support.”[v]
The specific contract for work for the JSOTF-P is expected to be completed in January 2008 but other contracts may follow as part of the $450 million-package.
According to Focus’ research, the JSOTF-P has not only been involved in the Philippine military’s operations in the south, it also represents the new kind of more austere, more low-profile kind of overseas presence that the US has been striving to introduce as part of its comprehensive restructuring of its forward-deployment.
US troops themselves refer to their facility in Sulu as “Advance Operating Base 920.”[vi] They describe their mission as “unconventional warfare” and “counterinsurgency.”[vii] {REFERENCE: Herbert Docena, herbert@focusweb.org}
SOURCES:[i] “Contracts, June 6, 2007,” US Department of Defense, www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=3532 [ii] For Focus on the Global South’s comprehensive report on theJoint Special Operations Task Force, see Unconventional Warfare: AreUS Special Forces Engaged in an ‘Offensive’ War in the Philippines?[can be downloaded from www.focusweb.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=105&func=fileinfo&id=23][iii] Press Release, “DynCorp International and JV Partners Win $450million NAVFAC Contract,” DynCorp International, November 2, 2006,www.dyn-intl.com/subpage.aspx?id=197[iv] “Contingency Response Services,” DynCorp International, www.dyn-intl.com/subpage.aspx?id=204[v] Defense Industry Daily, “$14.4M to help US SOCOM in thePhilippines,” June 8, 2007, www.defenseindustrydaily.com/?s=philippines; Ethan Butterfield, “DynCorp lands $450M NavyContingency Services Deal,” Washington Technology, November 3, 2006;www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/29650-1.htm[vi] T.D. Flack, “Special Operations Force aiding an important ally,”Stars and Stripes, March 10, 2007, http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=43138&archive=true[vii] Col. David Maxwell, “Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines:What Would Sun-Tzu Say” Military Review, May-June 2005; Members ofthe 1st Special Forces Group, “The History of the 1st SF Group in thePhilippines: 1957-2002,” Special Warfare, June 2002; C.H. Briscoe,“Why the Philippines: ARSOF’s Expanded Mission in the War onTerror’”, Special Warfare, September 2002
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