January 25, 2013
Reference: Atty. Virgie Lacsa- Suarez,
Secretary General, 09209190267
The USS Guardian’s running aground into the
Tubbataha marine sanctuary, declared by UNESCO as one of the World’s Heritage
Site, was simply dismissed by the US Navy as a navigational “accident”. Yet any
sea vessel (commercial, private and military) charts its course leading to its
destination before leaving its port of call. And the navigational courses are
defined by established navigational lanes.
The
accident was not a product of a faulty navigational map. The minesweeper
deliberately veered away from the navigational lanes. Facts showed the US
Guardian’s officers did not even coordinate with local authorities beforehand.
They did not respond to the warnings and radio calls of the Park Rangers who
introduced themselves as authorities in the area.
Past
and present history shows that the US military forces are engaged in covert as
well as overt operations in the country. Was the USS Guardian in a military
mission to retrieve something from the reserved marine park? What is it that is valuable for a US Navy minesweeper
to take the risk of running aground into the corals? Is there something highly confidential and
must be secured that the US troops in the vessel did not allow the Philippine
authorities to do the protocol inspection of the ship and instead took battle
positions?
This
action by the US troops against Philippine authorities exemplifies their utter
disregard of the country’s sovereignty and signifies that they have something
to keep secret. This is yet another one
of several incidents attesting to the fact that the US military is keeping
secret facilities or moving highly sensitive equipments inside the Philippine
territory. There are certain spots inside the former US Naval Base in Subic
that remain restricted. There had been several reported incidents of US
military personnel driving away indigenous Filipinos from a portion of Mt.
Kitanglad in Bukidnon that hosts a US communication facility.
The
main headquarters of the US Joint US Special Operation Task Force Philippines
(US JOSTFP) inside the headquarters of Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga
City is off limits even to ranking military officers of the AFP.The deafening
silence both from the US embassy and Malacanang somehow “corroborates” the theory
of a retrieval operation by the US Navy in the Tubbataha marine sanctuary. It
took a week for the US Seventh Fleet to issue its first official statement on
the incident. Malacanan has never filed
a diplomatic protest since the January 17 incident. It never demands for an immediate
investigation by an independent international body nor initiates a full investigation.
The PNoy government even allowed the officers and crew of USS Guardian
to be extracted and brought to undisclosed place.
This
inaction by the Philippine government towards US military’s violations of
Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity is never comparable to its reactions
with regards Chinese fishing vessels intruding into Philippine fishing grounds.
The
incident involving the USS Guardian comes at the heels of the retrieval of a US
military drone in the waters nearby Ticao Island, Masbate and the dumping of
toxic wastes from US naval vessels in Subic Bay. Incidents of drone crashes were
earlier reported in Jolo and in Central Mindanao. These series of high display
of US military related disasters are direct affront to Philippine sovereignty.
The
consistent inaction or dismissive moves and passive statements by the
Philippine government confirm its willing subservience and servility to US
designs.
As
to the USS Guardian’s tragedy all that PNoy could put forward is the question: “With
so much sophisticated navigation equipment, what happened?” The Philippine
Department of Foreign Affairs’ call for investigation in the intent of claiming
payment for damages to the Tubbataha marine sanctuary is all the PNoy
government could do, never to the extent of pursuing full investigation of the
incident.
For
the latest US Navy-made disaster, the US has trivialized the nation’s
sovereignty. It has put a price on it. The US has promised to pay Php300,000 for the damages it caused on the
marine sanctuary.
For
the US, nothing is irregular in their activities. Their military activities
are “justified” under the US-Ph Mutual
Defense Treaty as well as Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the erstwhile Mutual
Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA). Both agreements sanction their military ships
to freely sail around and anchor anywhere in the Philippines. Correspondingly,
US troops base and operate anywhere they want to.
Recently,
the PNoy administration has allowed the increasing number of US troops in the
country on the so-called rotational basis. It also gave the go-signal for US
military operations in more areas inside the Philippines. With these
developments the Filipino people could only expect more violations of their
sovereignty and territory.
More
than protecting the marine sanctuary as a World Heritage, let us expose and
oppose the increasing deployment of US troops and war materiel in the country.
Let us frustrate the escalating intervention and interference of US in our
domestic affairs.
Moreover, even as we condemn the
brazen conduct of the US Navy before, during and after USS Guardian’s running
aground in the marine sanctuary, let us not miss exposing more so reproaching the
Philippine government’s mishandling of the issue.
The Filipino people by asserting their
sovereign will would pursue the abrogation of the Mutual Defense Treaty and
other laws and agreements that subject the nation to US schemes and designs.
