Manila, Philippines (AKI / Oct. 3, 2008) – The alleged presence of US military bases on the conflict-ridden island of Mindanao is continuing to spark heated debate, with left-wing activists accusing the government of covering up the truth.
The Philippines constitution bars foreign military bases, troops, or facilities unless the Senate ratifies a special treaty.
The latest round of allegations followed a fact-finding mission to Zamboanga City by Senate defence committee chairman Rodolfo Biazon on Thursday.
After the visit, Biazon claimed that “there are no US bases in the South.”
A broad anti-war coalition of over 60 organisations reacted by calling Biazon's comments "lame" and the group of senators "biased" or "ignorant."
"This is clearly a case of feigned ignorance at best or a deliberate cover-up at worst," Mitzi Chan, a spokesperson for the Stop the War Coalition-Philippines said on Friday.
"The senators are either blinded by their ideological preference for US bases or by the Philippine military's dependence on US military aid," said Chan.
"Or they are deliberately attempting to cover-up the US bases in order to perpetuate their stay," she added.
Herbert Docena of the international think-tank Focus on the Global South said that Washington has been attempting to transform its global network of military presence to become more agile and less visible.
“If Biazon did not find US bases is because he was looking for the wrong kind,” Docena continued.
“What the US now has in Zamboanga City are military bases of the new, more sophisticated kind. Unlike in the past, these bases hide within local military bases, they don't fly the American flag, they have more austere facilities but are no less of a 'base' in their functions,” he added.
Docena, author of a number of reports on the issue, has been monitoring and researching the US military presence in the Philippines and in the region for the last six years.
Biazon’s mission was prompted by an uproar after that emerged the US government has approved the allocation of a 202 million dollar contract in Mindanao to a private firm that builds and operates US military bases.
The US Defence Department announced on its website on Monday that Texas-based DynCorp International would provide "support services" for the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTP), a special unit under the US Navy operating in Mindanao.
Another Texas-based contractor, Global Contingency Services, constructed facilities for US troops within the Philippine army's Camp Navarro in Zamboanga, Mindanao, last year at a cost of 14.4 million million dollars.
DynCorp, according to its website, builds facilities "in some of the world's most challenging places, including base camps in Iraq" and is also involved "in the operation of complex facilities, including military bases."
After the Philippines Senate voted to boot out US military bases in the country more than a decade ago, the prolonged deployment of American forces has become a contentious issue especially among militant groups.
They are regulated by the Mutual Defence Treaty, which is tied with a Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the two countries.
The VFA grants permit of stay to the JSOTP, that officials describe as a "rotating, semi-continuous, semi-permanent presence" of US soldiers in the country.
There are reportedly less than a thousand US troops spread out in Mindanao, Sulu and Basilan. But they have built their own facilities at Camp Navarro, headquarters of the Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine Marines headquarters at Camp Bautista in Jolo, Sulu.
The Philippines Constitution bars the troops from engaging in direct combat and their official role is to train Filipino soldiers and provide them with intelligence to fight the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.However, reports indicate they do move as a unit or in the company of Filipino troops in conflict area.
US officials have always denied the existence of military bases in the Philippines or that marines take part in combat operations.
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