Very few people know that the US military is directly involved in the fierce fighting going on in the Philippines between the Moro insurgents and the corrupt and brutal Arroyo regime supported by the Bush neocons and the warmongering Pentagon planners. Will you continue to allow US tax dollars to be wasted in this barbaric genocidal war against indigenous peoples? Over a thousand extrajudicial killings and "forced disappearances" under Arroyo's tenure, plus a few hundred Muslims dead as "collateral damage," may be the signs of US "benevolent hegemony" (Robert Kagan) and US "magnanimous imperial power" (Dinesh D'Souza). McKinley's "Benevolent Assimilation" lives on!
US slashes AFP aid to RP, cites corruption, killings (tags)
he United States has slashed its development and military assistance to the Philippines from $116.6 million in 2008 to $99.2 million in 2009, citing corruption and extra-judicial killings as reasons, a report yesterday said. In its 2009 congressional budget justification report for East Asia and the Pacific, the State Department said the aid for the Philippines “represents an overall decrease from the FY 2008 level.”
RP wants US help in routing communists (tags)
The Philippine government will welcome US counterinsurgency assistance against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said on Thursday. Ermita hinted at growing US involvement in the Philippines’ internal security affairs while discussing the coming joint Balikatan war games in Jolo. Interviewed after his sendoff of President Arroyo, who left Thursday morning for Davos, Switzerland, Ermita said the Chief Executive is glad that both counterterrorism and counterinsurgency campaigns are “moving forward, very smoothly.”
Aussie army chief gets briefing on hunt for JI leaders (tags)
Pesante-USA condemns Australia- A US junior imperialist partner in Southeast Asia's intervention in Philippine affairs. The chief of the Australian army secretly visited the southern Philippines yesterday for a briefing on the progress of the manhunt for two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants behind the October 2002 Bali bombings. Lt. Gen. Peter Leahy flew here from Jolo, Sulu where he was updated on the hunt for Umar Patek and Dulmatin, both wanted for their involvement in the 2002 bombings on the popular Indonesian resort island that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians.
AFP 6,000 TROOPS NOW PURSUING ABU SAYAFF IN SULU (tags)
Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon disclosed on Monday that 6,000 government troops have been deployed to intensify the ongoing pursuit operations against the band of Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani and two Jemaah Islamiyah bomb experts in the jungles of Sulu.
Fierce fighting in S. Philippines (tags)
T roops are searching for several key militants The Philippine military says five members of the Muslim group the Abu Sayyaf have been killed in fierce fighting in the south of the country. Rockets have been fired and bombs dropped on a base of suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf on Jolo island.