Baghdad? No, Zamboanga, Philippines. So what else is new? Inquirer photo.
What surprised me about the news regarding the local officials of Zamboanga complaining about the seemingly permanent deployment of US soldiers in Zamboanga was not the questionable presence of these foreign troops but rather the belated reaction of our officials to it.
It took them all of 6 years before they started to even entertain thoughts about it when the same was obvious even before the passage of the Visiting Forces Agreement.
I remember when during the heat of the debate regarding the ratification of the VFA those favoring it enumerated all the instant benefits the country would allegedly get from it — infrastructure (they will build roads and bridges and schools), peace and order (the indestructible GI Joe running after the blood-thirsty axis-of-evil spin-offs Abu Sayaff bandits, who were by the way a creation of the CIA), vibrant economy ( the troops on R&R will stir activity and peaceful climate will attract investment), humanitarian aid (expeditious relief during calamities and and social services to rural areas) and a host of other services you would think our government agencies (or the government itself) are totally useless we might as well abolish them. And besides, there’s no permanent basing, they assured with certainty, only visits.
Apparently, the troops aren’t leaving anytime soon and the visits more like permanent deployment.
For six years, the harmless visits were consistent they practically never leave — each batch leaves only to be replaced by a bigger one, every term ends only to be upgraded to a longer one, and each exercise folds only to be renewed as a wider one – you would think the islands is one big US military base. Whereas before they were confined to Subic and Clark shooting Filipino children mistaken for wild boars, they now freely roam the countryside from Cagayan Valley to Basilan looking for terrorists.
Of course we know what has happened to the great promise of the VFA — w e gave up sovereignty for food on the table and nights of quietude but ended up losing them all.
What has happened to our people? So proud yet so inglorious. So content yet so wanting. So heroic yet so lethargic.
It is not merely the lack of sense of history that causes us to mess up with our national life, it is more our utter lack of clear understanding of the essence of national sovereignty and territorial integrity – the foundations of a truly independent nation, the source of international respect.
But we would rather always sell ourselves to the highest bidder, mistaking this whore mentality for economic pragmatism. We always give up our sovereignty at the drop of a hat and wonder why our nation is at the bottom of development and global respect.
See how the Mining Act allows the plunder of our resources by foreigners. Find out why JPEPA is so wantonly unfavorable to our people. Realize how the IMF-WB policies sentence this nation to perpetual indebtedness. Learn how the WTO will spell disaster to our toiling masses of workers and peasants. Discover how the US global war on terror represses our people and violate our sovereignty.
Not surprisingly these visitors come in all kinds of guises and use all forms of pretext, and we are just always all too willing to be hospitable to them, no matter how long they overstay.
When will we ever come to our senses and have the courage to make them pack their bags and leave for good?
Posted by diego rojo banaag 
