March 21, 2002, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2,665 US troops arriving, by Martin P. Marfil and Juliet L. Javellana,

March 21, 2002, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2,665 US troops arriving, by Martin P. Marfil and Juliet L. Javellana,

NOT 1,700 but 2,665 US soldiers will take part in the RP-US Balikatan 02-2 set to start next month in Central Luzon, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said yesterday, contradicting the announcement Tuesday of Armed Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan.

Reyes said 10 more military exercises involving US troops would be held this year, although these would be "relatively smaller" than Balikatan 02-1 and 02-2. "All of them are short-two-day, one-week exercises," he said.

But lawmakers expressed alarm at the growing number of US troops coming into the Philippines and raised the suspicion that this could signal the establishment of the country as a US staging ground in the region.

Reyes said there was a US proposal to merge the Balikatan with a larger military exercise that would involve several other countries.

He said the exercise would be called "Team Challenge" and would be spearheaded by the United States, which had been holding exercises with such countries as Australia, Korea and Thailand.

"Now there is a move to have all of these under one exercise and call it Team Challenge," Reyes said at a press conference. "If we have Balikatan form part of the larger exercise, then that will be a foreign policy issue and we might have to discuss that with the Department of Foreign Affairs and eventually seek clearance from the President."

Reyes pointed out that the annual Balikatan was a bilateral, and not multilateral, exercise.

If other foreign troops were to participate in Team Challenge and it would be held in the Philippines, then there would be a need to forge agreements with the other countries similar to the VFA.

For now, troops from other countries can only get close to the Balikatan exercises as "observers."

'Behind people's back'

House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla (Nueva Vizcaya), Assistant Minority Leader Abraham Mitra (Palawan) and Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Apolinario Lozada Jr. said that if the ongoing Balikatan 02-1 in Basilan was governed by Terms of Reference, a corresponding TOR should be drawn up for Balikatan 02-2 because of the large number of participating US troops.

Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran rejected the two Balikatan exercises outright and accused the government of helping the United States set up new military bases in Southern Mindanao.

But President Macapagal-Arroyo said the impending arrival of thousands of US troops should not alarm the public because this was part of the joint war games regularly held under the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement.

She said those protesting the US troops' arrival were the same "anti-American" groups that objected to the VFA.

"These are the people who are always criticizing the Balikatan, the VFA, which the Supreme Court has upheld as constitutional," she said. "These are the anti-Americans, and we have to live with that."

The President said as many as 5,000 US troops were arriving in one year for the Balikatan exercises.

"That is why we are saying that this is not (anything) new because we have the VFA," she told Bombo Radyo.

Ms Macapagal said she had yet to decide whether she would also seek a TOR for Balikatan 02-2. She said she only insisted on a TOR for Balikatan 02-1 to allay fears that the US troops would engage in combat with the Abu Sayyaf.

Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, chided protest groups for opposing the President's decision to let US troops take part in joint operations against the Abu Sayyaf.

Such critics are ignoring the "overwhelming" support for the US assistance in the fight against the bandit group, Quevedo said in a statement.

He said the anti-US protests were turning "a molehill into a mountain."

But Beltran said there was no more doubt that the US troops were here to advance American economic and political interests in Southeast Asia, and not to train Filipinos to stamp out the Abu Sayyaf.

He accused the administration of colluding with the United States to reestablish US military bases "behind the people's back."

Troops to converge in Mindanao?

Adan had announced that 1,700 US troops would be coming for Balikatan 02-2. There is also a proposal for the deployment of 300 more US troops in Basilan, where there are already 660 US soldiers.

"Parami nang parami (the number is getting bigger)," Padilla said, theorizing that the reason authorities did not want a TOR for the military exercise in Central Luzon was "all US forces will eventually converge in Mindanao."

"If there's no TOR for Luzon, it would be easier for them to transfer the US forces to Mindanao," he told the INQUIRER.

Rigoberto Tiglao, spokesperson for the President, was quoted as saying Tuesday that Balikatan 02-2 did not require a TOR, unlike Balikatan 02-1 that was being held in an "area of conflict."

But Padilla said: "If you required a TOR for Mindanao, I don't see why it should not be applicable in Luzon."

Lozada said that a TOR was necessary for the Balikatan in Luzon, and that the government should explain its position.

"Exercises like these should be governed by guidelines all the time," said Lozada, chair of the House foreign relations committee that is set to resume its inquiry on the Balikatan.

According to Mitra, a TOR is necessary for Balikatan 02-2 especially if, as some reports have it, the exercise will involve troops from other countries like South Korea and Malaysia.

"If a large number of troops are involved that it would require expanded guidelines, if there would be a quantum leap, (then we should ask) for ground rules," Mitra said.

He added that there should be "different rules for different war exercises."

Intriguing

Lozada said the imminent arrival of thousands of US troops was "intriguing" because 'they are coming one (Balikatan) after another."

"What is the gravity of terrorist infiltration in our country?" he said. "Have we become the second Afghanistan?"

He said the US government should disclose its "geo-political game plan" because the Philippines was appearing to be "a staging ground for other countries."

Both Padilla and Beltran agreed with this observation.

"Even before the coming of American troops, there were reports that General Santos City was being set up as a possible base for US operations," Padilla said, adding:

"All of these indicate the growing interest of Americans in Mindanao, and, as I said before, the agenda is not just combat operations but something big."

Beltran said that after US bases and troops were banned in the Philippines, the United States used the Agency for International Development to build a "massive new naval and air base in Southern Mindanao."

He and Padilla were referring to the international airport and related facilities in General Santos.

"Now the troops have begun to come in so that they can begin using the bases and continue the American government's campaign of global military aggression and economic hegemony," Beltran said in a statement.

He expressed support for calls by several members of Congress to investigate the continuing US presence in the country.

"The US troops have been here for more than two months already but they have not helped the AFP capture the (Abu Sayyaf) and rescue its hostages," he said. "So far, the American troops appear to be here to conduct covert operations on their own and to flaunt their weapons in public."

Hostile action

Victoriano Lecaros, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, said no TOR was required for Balikatan 02-2 because there was no "threat of hostile action" in Luzon.

"The TOR governing the 660 US troops and 3,800 Filipino soldiers was put in place to allay fears that the Americans will engage in combat operations, considering that the exercise sites are near the combat zone areas in Basilan," he said.

But in the case of Luzon, he said, the threat and the risk of encountering the Abu Sayyaf bandits was nonexistent.

Asked if the New People's Army could not be considered a real threat, he said: "The communist NPAs have been there for so long. They are no threat."

Lecaros stressed that the TOR governing Balikatan 02-01 came about upon the insistence of Vice President and Foreign Secretary Teofisto Guingona Jr.

He said Guingona wanted to make sure that the Americans were not out to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf bandits, whom the Philippine military were considering a "domestic problem." With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan and Christine Herrera