U.S.
forces have teamed up with the Philippines’ military to combat
terrorist groups in the country, ostensibly to bring about peace. But
numerous human rights violations have sprung up in their wake and
some believe that the U.S.’ ultimate goal may be to oust President
Rodrigo Duterte.
by
Joe Catron
Part
1
As United
States special forces near their third week in Marawi, a city on the
southern Philippine island of Mindanao, observers say their
participation in the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ battle to
reclaim the city from the ISIS (Daesh)-linked Maute group was also
aimed at reinforcing more than a century of U.S. control over the
Philippines, which was its colony from 1899 until 1946.
“The
U.S. seeks to consolidate and maintain the Philippines as its
semi-colony, wherein it can avail itself of cheap raw materials
(minerals, oil, natural gas), a cheap labor force, a dumping ground
for its surplus US products, as well as protect its billions in
investments in corporate agribusiness, military production and even
healthcare, education, and public utilities such as
telecommunications and energy,” said Bernadette Ellorin, a
grassroots human rights activist and chairperson of BAYAN-USA, an
alliance of U.S.-based progressive Filipino organizations.
A 2006 U.S.
intelligence assessment said Mindanao could hold mineral resources
worth between $840 billion and $1 trillion, or as much as 70 percent
of the Philippines’ total mineral wealth.
The island
is also the site of enduring conflicts between the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the indigenous Lumad and Moro
peoples, as well as the leftist New People’s Army.
Peace talks
between the GRP and the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front and the leftist National Democratic Front of
the Philippines have stretched on for decades. But they quickly
disappeared from headlines when Maute seized Marawi on May 23, after
an attempt by the GRP to arrest the leader of another Daesh
affiliate, the Abu Sayyaf group.
But many
fear that the goal of the U.S.’ current intervention is to
strengthen the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in their bid to
repress these popular movements, as well as Maute and Abu Sayyaf.
“The
U.S. objective in Marawi and in Mindanao is to go after and crush the
revolutionary armed movement in the region including the Bangsamoro
struggle for self-determination, rebrand the [Communist Party of the
Philippines]-NPA as terrorists to the international community, and
derail the peace process that was resumed under the Duterte
administration,” Ellorin said.
Source,
links:
Comments
Post a Comment