We in Akbayan are appalled at the deception that has accompanied the proposed deployment of US troops in Sulu. In terms of its record, the New York Times is much more credible than Malacaņang, the DND, or the Pentagon. There is no choice when it comes to the question of who to believe.
We are worried at the many implications of this recent development.
First, the Philippines is now more explicitly a combatant in the US war against terror, making our country fair game for retaliatory attacks.
Second, Philippine sovereignty has been seriously compromised, with the administration's willingness to violate the Constitution by allowing US troops to engage in combat in an internal police matter.
Third, the US and the Philippine military in the person of Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes have connived behind the backs of the civilian authority. Like the military's invasion of MILF camps in Pikit, the deployment of US forces in combat is a surprise that has been sprung on the civilian members of t he Arroyo administration, including possibly the president herself. With a weak and unpopular president who is unwilling to challenge it, the military has taken advantage of the situation to expand its power within the state. Intent on pushing a direct role against those it considers terrorists, the US has abetted this power grab.
The US is precipitating a constitutional crisis in the interest of its pursuit of global hegemony, which many throughout the world now see as the real aim of its interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines. Civilian authority is now at its most fragile in the last decade.
We have been dragged willy-nilly in a conflict not of our own making-one that does not serve our national interest. Instead of focusing our energies on development, the president last year took us into a conflict that was in fact contradictory to our national interest. Now the military has taken us deeper into this conflict, this time with little regard and respect for civilian executive power.
As our Akbayan National President Joel Rocamora has stated, we demand the dismissal of Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes. We must also note, however, that President Arroyo has had a significant role in endangering our constitutional processes. By toying with our Constitution by inviting US troops, she has herself contributed to the erosion of constitutional processes.
All sectors of society now are ranged against this slide to war in our country,
just as most of the world is united in the war that the US is planning against
Iraq. There is still time to arrest this process. We ask our authorities to act
now.
