Filipinos in Canada horrified by the news of 2600 more U.S. troops being sent to the Philippines.
20 March 2002
For immediate release
Despite the groundswell of opposition to the current presence of over 600 U.S. combat troops in the Philippines, the U.S. is preparing to send 2600 more troops for joint
military operations. The operations are set to take place in Central Luzon far north from the U.S. military's original target combat area in the Southern island of Mindanao. The
Filipino community in Canada, which strongly opposed the original deployment of the 660 U.S. combat troops on sovereign Philippine soil, is utterly disgusted to hear that far
more troops are preparing to trample on the territorial integrity of the Philippines. Since the troops were dispatched in January 2002, overseas Filipino organizations and human
rights groups have been raising protest and serious concerns about the real intentions of the U.S. in returning its military machinery in the Philippines.
Under the flimsy pretense of helping the Philippine military quell a handful of rebels of the Abu Sayaff, ironically a group created by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency, the U.S. stormed into the Philippines earlier this year opening up the second front in its international war against terrorism. President Bush claimed that
troops would just be there for six months.
But the pretenses of U.S. imperialism have quickly evaporated. Now U.S. military aggression is spreading with greater intensity outside of the original combat
zone into other areas of the Philippines.
"With the recent news that the U.S. military is preparing to send more troops to the Philippines, there is no doubt that the U.S. never truly had the intention
of only helping the Philippine military quash the Abu Sayaff," asserts Carlo Sayo of the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance. "The U.S. needs the Philippines as a military
launching pad in the Asia Pacific just as it has in the past," he concludes.
Since the U.S. sent its troops to the Philippines, Filipinos in Canada have launched their own campaigns against the U.S. military aggression in their
homeland. Their actions have been in solidarity with progressive national democratic people's organizations in the Philippines. The Filipino people have been crying for the U.S.
troops to leave the country immediately, and denouncing President Macapagal-Arroyo for her outright subservience to U.S. imperialism.
In solidarity with this legitimate demand, the Filipino community in Canada will not stand for this further encroachment of the U.S. military in their
homeland. They have serious questions of who the U.S. military's next target may be in their war of aggression, and are deeply concerned for the safety and well-being of their
families and fellow Filipinos. Overseas Filipino worker, women, and youth organizations in Canada and their allies and supporters are committed to continue their struggle
against the U.S. war of aggression in the Philippines.
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Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, Filipino Nurses Support Group, Philippine Women Centre of B.C., SIKLAB (Overseas Filipino workers organization), B.C. Committee for Human
Rights in the Philippines
