By Felipe Realidades*
Street names in the Philippines are often the playthings of politicians. Political power, if you will, is often a license for politicians to name streets after themselves, unless of course the street is named after some former US colonial figure. EDSA, though, is named after Epifanio de los Santos y Cristóbal, a man of many talents, but especially as a patriotic historian and revolutionary journalist.
EDSA is a wide, mostly 10 lane wide street that starts at the south western section of Manila and ends in the north western section forming a great arc that rings Manila as the latter faces the South China Sea. If you will, EDSA captures Manila, the national capital, in its grip.
Fittingly, EDSA is one of the three places mass protests tend to happen. In the eastern end of the National Capital Region lies one of the places where mass protests tend to happen: Quezon Boulevard in front of the Philippine Congress — the legislative arm of the Philippine state, i.e., that which expresses the will of the Philippine ruling classes in universal form. In the western end of the National Capital Region lies the other place where mass protests tend to happen: Mendiola bridge in front of Malacañang or the Presidential Palace, where sits the chief executive of the ruling classes, the chief implementer of its will. In between, roughly bisecting both is EDSA where the masses of Manila have now built a tradition of popular uprising, often called People Power. If the people’s insurrection is the supreme expression of the will of the people and its supreme exercise, then it is fitting that it be at EDSA, especially between the two main military camps in National Capital Region: Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police, and Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the two armed organs of the ruling classes — fittingly named after two traitors.
“People Power I”, in 1986, a people’s insurrection coupled by withdrawal of military support for the President, overthrew the corrupt and violent dictator Ferdinand Marcos. “People Power II”, in 2001, also a people’s insurrection coupled by withdrawal of military support for the President, overthrew the corrupt and violent President Joseph Estrada. What about the corrupt and violent illegitimate President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA)? On February 24, 2006, a day before commemoration of People Power I, GMA declared a state of emergency. People had been set to go to EDSA in numbers as well as a section of the Philippine Marines, to protest GMA’s illegitimate rule, and unbridled corruption and violence. The state of emergency only lasted a week because of growing resistance to such dictatorial measures. But up to now, GMA presumptuously tries to peddle the line that future People Power’s will lack international legitimacy.
The central issue of this year’s EDSA celebrations was the VFA, or Visiting Forces Agreement.
There have been US military bases ever since the US invaded the Philippines in 1898. These colonial bases continued through flag independence until a massive anti-bases movement were finally able to expel them in 1991 because of their affront to Philippine sovereignty, the repeated criminal behaviour and impunity of US soldiers; and the social ills such as the sex industry that they gave rise to, etc.
But since the Philippines is not an independent democratic country but suffers from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal social order, every President since, from Ramos to Estrada attempted, with US diktat, to get US bases back into the country. Every time it met sufficient resistance to block such efforts until Estrada finally succeeded in 1999 through the VFA.
The VFA as its name implies is not a treaty but an executive agreement between the Presidents of the US and the Philippines. The US government sees it as such but in true neocolonial form the Philippines sees it as a treaty.
The VFA essentially not only gives the US military the right to use any sea and airport, it gives the US right to deploy the US military anywhere in the Philippines for whatever unspecified activity. US military personnel remain under US jurisdiction even as the US military is exempt from Philippine taxes and customs regulations. The VFA essentially makes the Philippines a giant US base. To add insult to injury, US military use of Philippine ports is essentially under Philippine expenses.
As with the US-Philippines military bases agreement of 1947, the same issues exist: the trampling of Philippine sovereignty, the criminality and impunity of US soldiers and the social ills of the sex industry that attend the presence of the US military. US troops have been back since 2002 as part of Operation “Enduring Freedom” in the US’s global war of terror.
Supposedly the rationale for their presence is to help in the “War on Terror” against a local kidnap for ransom gang, the Abu Sayyaf, which was trained by the CIA and long funded by the Philippine government, and a convenient distraction whenever real issues have erupted on the national plane. Not surprisingly, the Abu Sayyaf has accomplished miracle escapes against the Philippine military. At the same time, US troops are found not in Abu Sayyaf areas but in areas in which the leftist New People’s Army operates.
US soldiers have been involved not only in military exercises with their Philippine counterparts but have actually been involved in combat operations with the Philippine military including the terrorizing of villages and the deaths of Filipino civilians. Much recently US troops were manning checkpoints all over the Bicol region as Philippine soldiers harassed and attacked farming villages.
Regarding the criminality of and impunity of US soldiers, this was graphically underlined by the “Nicole” case. “Nicole,” a native of Subic, Zambales was raped in a van on Nov. 1, 2005 by US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith as his three fellow Marines Chad Carpentier, Dominic Duplantis, and Keith Silkwood cheered on. On December 4, 2006, the Makati City Regional Trial Court found Smith guilty of rape and sentenced him to life imprisonment, despite deliberate negligence on the part of the Department of Justice.
Until this day, Smith has yet to serve his sentence in a Philippine prison. The Department of the Interior and Local Government had transferred him from the Makati City Jail to the U.S. Embassy on Dec. 29, 2006 giving as its reasons the Department of Justice’s legal opinion concerning the agreement signed between the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and U.S. Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney seven days before.
Positively, on Feb. 11, 2009 the Philippine Supreme Court finally ruled that the Romulo-Kenny Agreements in relation to Smith were not in accordance with the Visiting Forces Agreement. Yet even after a month, the Philippine government has remained true to form by displaying no interest in demanding the return of Smith
Meanwhile the anti-VFA protests have grown in strength. Significantly, the VFA was the main issue in this year’s commemoration of EDSA I. Also significantly, the government responded to the free expression of political protest with a brutal dispersal.
*Felipe Realidades is the pseudonym of a Filipino freelance commentator focusing on Philippine current affairs.
I miss Aquino. What an awesome project though. Let’s take one of the biggest employers away from one of the worlds poorest countries ! I’m glad you didn’t forget to take time to cheer on the muslim throatcutters from the south. Another insightful article championing hard left ideology and name calling over silly concerns like peoples’ well being.
Good Work !