[Looking Back: A century of US imperialist devastation] Previous Balikatan exercises - Violations of the people's rights
In this issue, AB highlights the following articles which review the miseries infl icted by US imperialism upon the Filipino people and the bloody history of its domination of the Philippines. Present US policies and actions in the country, including the ongoing armed intervention in Mindanao, can best be understood only with a study of these chapters of the Philippine history.
To make the return of American troops into Philippine soil more acceptable, they are pictured as troops with high respect for human rights and sensitivity to local customs. The regime wants to erase from memory the abuses of the American troops in past war games, apart from the deprivations suffered by the Filipino people since the US colonized the country.
Instead of helping the victims seek redress for the injustices, the puppet government has even acted as mediator to fix cases in favor of the US forces. The Macapagal- Arroyo regime has even gone to the extent of asking the people to thank the US for "assisting" in the "anti-terrorist war"
On August 21, 2000, Arnelo Gabiola, 18 and Rolley Narvares, 17, of Toledo, Cebu were killed when a grenade irresponsibly left by American troops during an exercise in the area exploded. Jordan Villarmina, 11, was likewise wounded. The US Navy SEALS and the Philippine Navy had no permit to use the place as a firing range. Neither did they warn the public prior to firing there. The American troops were not made to answer for their culpability, nor for the provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement and the rules of the exercise they violated. To silence the families of the victims, the past and present regimes offered them bribes.
Marcelo Batistil, a taxi driver, was also offered a $5,000 bribe to drop the charges he filed against three American soldiers who manhandled him last March 6, 2000 while the Balikatan exercises were ongoing. Batistil complained when the three soldiers refused to pay their taxi fare and instead vented their ire on him. Even under the terms of the VFA, the three should have been immediately arrested by local authorities and charged in Philippine courts. However, the US refused to surrender the three and instead allowed them to flee to the US.
In a Balikatan naval exercise last February 2000, bombs fired by the troops participating in the exercise missed their targets four times. The bombs hit Talisayin, a fishing community in Zambales. As a result, 10-15 families had to evacuate the area defenseless and in fear. Despite the clear error considering especially that the community was populated, theofficials of the Philippine Navy were adamant that the area was part of the target. But the residents of the community were not first evacuated nor even advised before the bombings began.
The AFP has also chalked up a long list of wanton disregard for the rights and welfare of the people, for the sake of the US troops participating in the Balikatan.
In December 1999, in preparation for Balikatan 2000, troops from the SAF, 24th IB, 68th IB, 69th IB, 71st IB, 703rd Bde Training Unit and the ISAFP burned hundreds of houses in the mountains of San Marcelino and San Felipe in Zambales, Dinalupihan in Bataan, and Floridablanca, Lubao and Porac in Pampanga. Allegedly they were "clearing" the areas for the military exercises. Aetas residing there were arrested and tortured in large numbers by the said troops.
The AFP imposed a food blockade on the Aetas of Sitio Palis, Baytan and Maquisquis in Loob Bunga resettlement area in Botolan, Zambales last February 2000. The soldiers also forcibly displaced more than a hundred Aeta families from Sitio Tarukan, Barangay Sta.Ana, Capas, Tarlac. They did this to "clear" the area near the Crow Valley bombing and gunnery range to be used in the Balikatan.
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