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Mariano Carrasco

WE should not allow the old Lumbia airport and the city of Cagayan de Oro to be used as a defense shield  or a nuclear magnet in the event of war between the United States and its potential enemies. In fact, we should not allow the Philippines to be used as such. The Americans have enough shields already, from Okinawa,  Guam,  Hawaii, some other Southeast Asian countries like South Korea and Japan, up to the Middle East and former Eastern European countries which have become American and Nato allies. The Americans have so many aircraft carriers, too, plying the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean. Russia and China, America’s archenemies, are practically sandwiched in between.

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It seems some some leaders have been foisting a deception on our people.

First came the news that the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Edca, despite massive opposition. The decision would now allow  American military forces and their nuclear-armed warplanes  to use, free of charge, the Philippine military facilities. The next day, it came out in the national news that the old Lumbia airport in Cagayan de Oro  is among those to be used for Edca. The next day Mayor Oscar Moreno broke the news that he would allow the use of the former Lumbia airport  for use by the American forces pursuant to Edca.

The Mayor, it seems, was taken aback when he sensed a strong public reaction. Then a day or two thereafter, a respectable lady consultant at City Hall broke the news that there is a Lumbia Development Plan, designed and conceptualized to be a well managed urban development site, an expansion plan for the city which is already congested, a “mixed-use modern district”, and a “self-contained community”.

This plan is contained in the article of Rappler.com, which tries at first to make it appear that there is “looming battle” over the use of the old Lumbia airport, whether to use it as part of the planned city expansion, or as part of Edca. But reading further, Rappler.com states: “If Edca enters into the picture and the airport is used by the US military, the city officials said they would have to just adjust the design accordingly—but not without first exhausting efforts to convince the national government to favor the PCE or planned city expansion.”

Clearly, the city planners are not opposing or resisting the use of Lumbia for Edca purposes. They state that they would “just adjust the design accordingly”, though they would lamely add that they will “exhaust efforts to convince the national government to favor the PCA”. This is not an opposition to EDCA, though it makes a subtle but pretentious suggestion that it is against the EDCA use. What is clear is that earlier on the national government and Mayor Moreno had declared that they would allow the use of the old Lumbia airport for use by American military forces and warplanes which would likely carry nuclear weapons or missiles. We should not be deceived.

We have nothing against the Americans, though my great granduncle, Major Apolinar Velez (brother of my great grandfather Salavador Velez, Sr.), fought them off and massacred them at nearby Macahambus cave during the Philippine-American war, the first major victory against the foreign invaders. We have imbibed the American culture and we have learned a lot from them too, no doubt. But please, our people and country have suffered enough from foreign colonialism, and has remained impoverished after having been sucked of its resources through the centuries. Can’t the Americans  spare us from further damnation and destruction?

 (Mariano B. Carrasco is a lawyer based in Cagayan de Oro.)

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