Palawan has long been eyed as a site
for joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises. In fact, it has been
the site of low-profile Balikatan exercises using U.S. Seals teams.
Other units of the US armed forces such as the US Special Operations
Forces have conducted Combined Special Training Exercises
(CSOFOR-CTX) and Civil Military Operations (CCMO) in Palawan. So
far, these military exercises have been small-scale and low-profile.
Lately, there have been suggestions by
Philippine officials to hold large scale military exercises in
Palawan and the corral reefs and islets of the Kalayaan Island
Group (Spratlys). They want to invite the US forces currently
stationed in Basilan and Zamboanga peninsula to conduct the war
games in the nation's last frontier! A local politician of Palawan
who made such an atrocious proposal even described it as a
"pro-environment activity" suggesting that the Balikatan exercises
"would scare off forays poachers" who encroach on Philippines waters
west of Palawan.
But Palawan is not just our nation's
last frontier that will be ravaged, damaged and poisoned by
live-fire military exercises, test-fire explosions, amphibious naval
maneuvers and beach assaults and toxic contamination from military
ordnance and chemicals.
Palawan is one of the few remaining
homes to the diverse variety of flora and fauna, including the rare
and endangered 800 plant, 90 bird, 30 mammal, 19 amphibian and 10
reptile species. According to Conservation International, it is the
variety of habitats and ecosystems in Palawan that makes the
Philippines one of the "17 earth's biologically wealthiest nations."
Now, all this is in danger of being poisoned, razed to the ground
and annihilated by live-fire bullets and explosions from joint
military exercises. Those who have visited the Coron, Busuanga and
Culion Islands of Palawan will tell you that, yes, this is more than
paradise on earth!
Last May, 2002, the U.S. Department of
Defense submitted to the Republican members of Congress a
proposal to lift all environmental restrictions and safeguards on
U.S. military exercises and activities in the United States and
overseas. Whatever will become of this proposal, it indicates the
roughshod and gung-ho attitude of the Bush administration when it
comes to the environment especially when it is ranged with the US
Department of Defense's "war against terrorism." Bush's
"war on terrorism" will soon also be converted into A WAR AGAINST
THE ENVIRONMENT!
Of course, the principal sacrificial
lambs of joint military exercises or war games will be the usual
dislocation of farmers and the poisoning of their farmlands with
toxic chemicals and unexploded ammunition as what has happened in
venues of past joint military exercises in Luzon and Visayas. For,
God-forbid, it would result in the further extinction of
Palawan's dwindling indigenous peoples living in interior Palawan,
the Tagbanuas, the Bataks, Tau'ng Bato, Kalamiananen, Agutaynen,
Palawan, Kuyonen, among others. Today, these indigenous peoples of
Palawan, together with the various non-government organizations
securing its rainforests and bio-diversity despite the intrusions of
tourism, are the remaining guardians of beautiful Palawan.
We cannot imagine what will happen to
Palawan's biological diversity, subterranean rivers, centuries-old
giant mangroves and rainforests if the large-scale Balikatan
military exercises were held there.
Let us defend Palawan, the last
beautiful frontier of the Philippines.
* Article by Roland G Simbulan - For a full
professional background of Professor Roland G. Simbulan (Click
Here)
