Pax Americana

Cong Corrales

“Di ko kailangan ang ‘yong mga base militar. Madadamay lang kami sa ‘yong digmaang nukleyar.” – Buklod

SIX decades and nine years ago yesterday, President Manuel A. Roxas and Paul V. McNutt, the United States high commissioner in the country, signed the Military Bases Agreement. That was on March 14, 1947.

On March 26, 1947, the Philippine Senate concurred, and “accepted and ratified by the US on Jan. 21, the next year.”

Only three senators, of the 18-member Senate, did not attend the session to vote, probably in protest. Three other senators were barred from session on grounds of vote fraud–a concocted charge designed by the Roxas administration.

The bases agreement basically granted the US the right to retain its military bases in the country to use such facilities “as the United States determines to be required by military necessity.”

Many Filipinos benefited from the US bases–from the political hustlers and war pimps who rewarded themselves with handsome windfalls from  the country’s superpower friend and ally to the workers of the oldest industry in the world that made sure GI Joe was happy while being stationed here in the country.

However, one could also argue that the presence of American GIs in the country stirred the Filipino psyche. After World War II, the Americans have long wanted to establish forward military bases in the country.

The Philippines, militarily speaking, is so much more strategic than the American base in Okinawa, Japan.  From here, the US can launch wars for American hegemony anywhere in the southeast Asia–Pax Americana.

I remember father Emilio telling me the reason why the country appeared to go on overdrive, like a steed suddenly let loose in the field.

“That’s what happens when you’ve been in the convent for 300 plus years and the 50 years of ‘benevolent assimilation’ of Hollywood,” Emilio said in jest.

The Senate would redeem itself 44 years later when the upper house voted 12-11, rejecting the negotiated treaty that would allow an extension of the stay of the US bases in the Philippines on Sept. 16, 1991. The senators who voted in favor were five short of the two-thirds majority needed for the ratification of the new treaty.

I was only a high school freshman when the entire country was swept with an overwhelming sense of patriotism and sovereignty. I remember seeing people taking to the streets to celebrate.

The patriotic euphoria, however, would eventually die down with the entry of a new breed of American serfs.

Earlier this year, the High Tribunal upheld the legality of the controversial Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca). The magistrates voted 10-4.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno ruled that under Sec. 25, Art. 18, the President can enter into an executive agreement on foreign military bases, troops, or facilities.

“As it is, Edca is not constitutionally infirm. As an executive agreement it remains consistent with existing laws and treaties it purports to implement,” the Supreme Court said.

Now, the American GIs will be back with a vengeance. This agreement is so much worse than the Military Bases Agreement. Under the original agreement, US troops were confined inside Clark and Subic bases, to a certain extent. Under Edca, however, American special forces can drop in at any time and any where in the country.

In fact, barely two months since the Supreme Court upheld Edca, City Hall’s expansion plans in and around Lumbia airport have been shelved to pave the way for the US special forces who will use the airport as a jump-off point of their clandestine operations in the South Pacific Region.

Under the pretext of coming to aid its “long time friend and ally” from the bullying of the People’s Republic of China over the West Philippines Seas, the US returns to the Philippines albeit like a triumphant hero who have come to save the day.

It may well appear to be unfair if we equate the presence of US GIs in our city to a rise in prostitution, rapes, and drug abuse. But when will we, as a sovereignty people, stop letting this foreign superpower interfere with our foreign policies?

The answer to that, unfortunately, could be discerned from the High Tribunal’s latest ruling that could very well put an American citizen in Malacanang Palace come June. Pfft.

“Ikaw ang nagpunla ng digmaan sa bayan ko. Hinahati-hati mo ang mga tao.” – Buklod