#title:CPDF calls for vigilance against US military intervention<br>
@@@@@<h1>CPDF calls for vigilance against US military intervention</h1><!-- Cordillera People's Democratic Front, Simon "Ka Filiw" Naogsan Sr., Spokesperson, September 1, 2009 </em><br><br>
The Cordillera People's Democratic Front calls for heightened vigilance against the escalation of US military intervention in the country. There are currently about 600 US Special Forces troopers stationed in Mindanao. According to US Defense Sec. Robert Gates, US troops are training and arming their local counterparts such as those in the Navy Special Warfare Group, the Army Light Reaction Battalion, and the Marine Force Recon Battalion. These US troops have been granted permanent basing facilities in Zamboanga, a circumvention of the constitutional ban on the presence of foreign military bases on Philippine soil. Numerous sources, among them Navy Lt. (SG) Nancy Gadian, disclosed that US troops accompany Filipino troops in combat operations. US authorities insist that their troops merely provide technical support, but this claim has been belied several combat atrocities in Mindanao involving US troops firing their weapons on Filipinos. Moreover, NDF-Bicol spokesperson Ka Greg Bañares announced that NPA guerillas engaged in combat US troops in the company of operating AFP units in the Bicol region during the past Balikatan Exercises.<br>
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US military presence in the Philippines has grown from a mere counter-terrorist operation against insignificant alleged Al-Qaeda terror cells in Mindanao to full-blown joint operations against the NPA and the revolutionary mass movement in Mindanao, the Visayas, and Bicol. Reliable sources have it that the Balikatan Exercises for 2010 will be held in the Ilocos region. It is interesting to note that Balikatan Exercises in the recent past have been undertaken in areas where US business interests lie. The Ilocos provinces adjoin the Cordillera region, an area which has long been the target of US and other foreign mining and energy companies. It is likely that joint US-Filipino military exercises are meant to gauge the capabilities of the NPA and the revolutionary mass base, and to ensure the inter-operability of Filipino troops with future US plans of military aggression.<br>
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US troops and facilities in the Philippines violate Philippine sovereignty. Joint US-Filipino military exercises only benefit the US which is able to establish military forward bases in and pass on outdated equipment to its puppet states. Filipino generals allow and even request for these military exercises because it provides them the opportunity to steal tens of millions in funds meant for their field troops.<br>
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The world's resources -primarily oil, minerals, timber, and other energy sources -are quickly being depleted by the US and other imperialist countries. Among these imperialist countries, the US has shown it is the most ready to use force to ensure its business interests and the continued expansion of resources for its extractive industries. The CPDF calls on the national minorities in the Cordillera and the rest of the Filipino masses to prepare for further US military intervention, including the possibility of direct hostilities. For over three hundred years, the national minorities of the Cordillera valiantly defended their ancestral lands against Spanish colonialism, succumbing only to the deceptive measures of American imperialism. Let us learn from our past and defend our ancestral lands for the next generation. Let the blood of our forebears strengthen us to stand against aggression. Let the revolutionary knowledge that has now taken root amongst many Cordillera tribes and communities enlighten us against the deceptiveness of US imperialism and its local puppets.<br>
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Fetad!<br>
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