NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5773

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Philippines: How "The Battle for the Bases" Was Won
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/** reg.philippine: 188.0 **/
** Topic: Battle for the Bases **
** Written  6:25 pm  Aug 12, 1992 by fbp in cdp:reg.philippine **
From: Foreign Bases Project <fbp>
Subject: Battle for the Bases

/* Written  6:19 pm  Aug 12, 1992 by fbp in cdp:wri.news */
/* ---------- "Disarm the Pacific" ---------- */
Philippines: How "The Battle for the Bases" Was Won

     September 16, 1991 marked a great political victory for the
Philippine anti-bases, anti-nuclear movement in an arena that is
not traditionally its own. Just how could it be possible for a
traditionally pro-U.S., conservative body like the Philippine
Senate to reject the bases treaty of extension?
     The anti-bases, anti-nuclear movement in the Philippines has
always taken the view that the nuclear arms race has to be linked
to the issue of foreign military intervention or occupation. This
is why we have long supported and closely identified ourselves
with the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) Movement.
     For decades the U.S. had transformed the islands into its
physical, political and psychological stronghold in the western
Pacific. Its sprawling military bases in the Philippines operated
in an unhampered manner, free from the Constitution, customs,
immigration and labor laws.
     The Philippines bases were used as forward bases for
intervention, standby storage and launching sites for nuclear
weapons, landing fields for nuclear bombers and fighter planes,
ports for nuclear-armed aircraft carriers, surface ships and
submarines and most importantly the vital C3I network.
     The U.S. had been looked up to as the standard-bearer of the
free world and democracy. This view was shattered when Ferdinand
Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 and dismantled
the democratic political institutions that the U.S. had
introduced to the Philippines. Many Filipinos, including most of
the Senators elected in 1987, could not understand how and why
the U.S. could support a dictatorship. The U.S. doubled and
tripled its military aid for the martial law government, thus
enabling Marcos to expand his military forces from 60,000 in 1972
to 250,000 in 1985. U.S. support for Marcos angered the Filipino
people who were its victims, and the anti-bases movement fully
exploited this reality.
     On February 2, 1987 we made a breakthrough. The Filipino
people voted for a pro-peace and nuclear weapons-free
Constitution. After continuous lobbying and educational campaigns
by the anti-nuclear movement, a Constitutional provision was
incorporated which read: "The Philippines, consistent with the
national interest, adopts and pursues a policy of freedom from
nuclear weapons in its territory."
     In the first few months after the nuclear weapons-free
provision was ratified, nuclear-free awareness and consciousness
spread like wildfire over the island. In 19 provinces and 36
cities and municipalities covering almost 34 percent of the
population, local governments officially declared themselves as
nuclear weapons-free zones. The Philippine anti-nuclear movement
began to grow by leaps and bounds conducting campaigns to
highlight the dangers of nuclear weapons.
     At first not all anti-nuclear advocates inside or outside of
government were anti-bases. It was actually the Americans who
reconciled the two, making anti-nuclear pacifists into anti-bases
advocates. Everyone knew that the U.S. Navy regularly transported
and always had on "standby storage" tactical nuclear weapons in
their massive logistical depots. The Americans refused to give up
their nuclear access and threatened to give up their bases and
facilities which stored or allowed their transit and
trans-shipment if forced to do so. The day of reckoning neared.
[Mt. Pinatubo made Clark Air Force base useless and the U.S. and
Philippine governments reached agreement on a ten year extension
of Subic naval base's stay.] Then last December 31, 1991, the
government of the Philippines finally decided, in implementing
the Senate's rejection of the one-sided bases treaty and in
conformity with the Constitution, to give the U.S. government a
year to complete its military withdrawal from the Philippines.
--Prof. Roland G. Simbulan
Chairperson Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition (NFPC)

Contact: NFPC, Room 511 J & T Bldg., 3894 R. Magsaysay Blvd.,
Sta. Mesa, Manila, Philippines

****
From September/October 1992 (Vol.9 #5) issue of the Nonviolent
Activist, publication of the War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette
St., New York, NY 10012. Subscriptions $15/year.

This is an edited version of a talk from the Pacific People's
Forum Toward a Century Free of Overseas Bases, Yokohama, Japan,
May 3-4, 1992. For information in the U.S., contact Pacific
Campaign to Disarm the Seas,  c/o Peace Resource Center, 5717
Lindo Paseo, San Diego, CA 92115-1326; [e-mail].
** End of text from cdp:reg.philippine **