Filipino senator holds public hearing in Zamboanga City, calls for suspension of peace talks with MILF rebels

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 28, 2009) – A Philippine Senator Rodolfo Biazon on Friday held a public hearing on the proposed suspension of the government’s resumption of peace talks with Muslim rebels following fierce clashes in Mindanao that killed 23 soldiers and injured more than a dozen more.

Biazon, the chairman of the Senate’s Committee on National Defense, on August 17 filed Resolution Number 1281 which calls for the suspension of the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front until the Arroyo government could thoroughly study how the negotiations should be handled.

The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting the past three decades for self-determination in the southern Philippines.

Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, said government troops in Basilan attacked rebels which sparked a fierce fight that killed ten of their members.

He said the military attacked rebel forces despite a cease-fire deal and ahead of the resumption of the peace talks in October.

The military’s Western Mindanao Command said the operation in Basilan targeted the Abu Sayyaf and not the MILF. It also insisted that it coordinated with the MILF to avoid clashes between rebels and security forces.

Major Benjamin Dolorfino, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said troops raided an Abu Sayyaf camp in the province.

Biazon said he met with soldiers who clashed with rebels in Basilan province on August 12 and interviewed them about the fighting.

He said he was shocked when he learned that the military failed to provide artillery support to the soldiers who were fighting more than 100 Abu Sayyaf militants in the village of Silangkum in Ungkaya Pukan town. The soldiers later clashed with MILF forces in nearby village of Baguindan.

Pamsy Tioseco, the senator’s media officer, said they invited mayors and governors of Mindanao in the public hearing held at the Garden Orchid hotel. Soldiers and policemen guarded the hotel during the hearing.

The military said about 31 militants and rebels were killed in the daylong fighting, but only 10 bodies had been recovered. The Stars and Stripes, in an article published on August 26, reported that U.S. special operations troops deployed in Mindanao, assisted Filipino soldiers in the raids in Basilan and helped treat the injured, but were not directly involved in combat.

The report, which quoted the U.S. Embassy, said the U.S. Joint Special Operations Task-Force Philippines, which has worked in the country since 2002, supported those raids "by sharing information and providing technical capabilities to assist (Armed Forces of the Philippines) leadership in communicating with their forces in the field."

Stars and Stripes is an independent news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. In addition to its website, Stars and Stripes reports on matters affecting military service members and publishes five daily newspaper editions for the United States Armed Forces serving overseas.

The U.S. military is helping the Filipino troops in defeating local terrorism. The Pentagon has recently announced some 600 American troops deployed in Mindanao will remain in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner)

Row continues over alleged US military bases in South RP

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.

Philippine Lawmakers Begin Probe Of US Military Presence In Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 26, 2008) – Filipino lawmakers are to begin an inquiry into the role of US troops deployed in the southern Philippines, where security forces are battling Abu Sayyaf terrorists and other rebel groups in the troubled region.

The inquiry was called after several political groups and lawmakers claimed US soldiers are participating in combat operations in the restive region, which is prohibited under the Filipino Constitution.

The Joint Legislative on Oversight Committee on Visiting Forces Agreement has already created a fact-finding team to investigate the allegations.

The team, headed by Rep. Antonio Cuenco and Senator Rodolfo Biazon are expected to arrive in Zamboanga City on October 1 to start the probe. US forces maintain several small bases inside the Western Mindanao Command headquarters, the Philippine Navy base and the Philippine Air Force and Philippine Army bases in Zamboanga City.

Reps. Maria Isabelle Climaco and Erico Fabian have joined the growing calls for an investigation into the continued stay of US forces in Zamboanga City since 2002, when Manila and Washington agreed to hold a series of joint military exercise there.

Among those calling for the investigation were the militant groups Bayan Muna to which Rep. Satur Ocampo, a staunch anti-US advocate, belongs; the independent Citizens Peace Watch, Bantay-Ceasefire and several Muslim human rights groups.

Former Southern Philippines military chief, Edilberto Adan, now the Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on VFA, has repeatedly denied the involvement of US troops in any combat operations in Mindanao.

Political activists have accused Adan of siding with the US military and called for his resignation. It said the VFA Commission should be headed by a civilian, who is “respectable and neutral” and not by a former military general.

“Adan should resign because he had sided so many times with the US military, instead of searching for the truth. He acts like a lawyer for the US forces, instead of being a patriotic Filipino citizen,” said Alvin San Jose, an activist.

Philippine Marines Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga, commander of the Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City, said American troops are engaged in humanitarian missions and they are not allowed to participate in combat operations.

But aside from humanitarian missions, the US military said it is supporting the Philippines war on terror by providing the local military with intelligence information against the Abu Sayyaf and other rebel groups in Mindanao.

The US Embassy also said the American forces are assisting, advising and training Philippine units, and conduct series of humanitarian activities and soldiers are not supposed to engage in direct combat.

The Philippines Commission on Human Rights said it has reports of US participation in combat operations against the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces. (With reports from Erico Rosco and Juan Mantanggol)