US spy operations in Mindanao an act of "bullying"
INPEACE MINDANAO
Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao
Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines
mindainpeace@yahoo.com
STATEMENT
January 26, 2005
US spy operations in Mindanao an act of "bullying"
InPeace Mindanao strongly opposes the United States' plan to conduct
and provide US military intelligence and assistance here in this
country, as this will only lead to further tensions in the persisting
conflicts in Mindanao.
US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone's admission of a spy network
of 70 American intelligence personnel here in Mindanao is a brazen
act of bullying. The Philippine government's "request"
for such personnel is likewise an open invitation for US meddling
in the nation's internal affairs, a treasonous act against the
Constitution and the national sovereignty.
Ricciardone is the resurrected ghost of General Pershing, the
highest American military official to have conducted reconnaissance
operations in Mindanao in the early 1900s. Today, Ricciardone
flaunts American arrogance by unleashing spies and training the
local military as proxies for American espionage operations. His
threats against the New People's Army (NPA) and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) is a clear act of meddling in the internal
peace process.
The Strategic Support Branch, a creation of Washington particularly
under the Department of Defense, intends to function as an intelligence
network with local spy networks and tapping of national intelligence
databases in Third World Countries. We believe that this "job
description" is a euphemism for American covert or dirty
tactics operations.
As pointed out by Senator Aquilino Pimentel, we believe the self-inflicted
injury suffered by CIA agent Michael Terrence Meiring in Davao
City in the Evergreen Hotel explosion in May 2002 is one indication
that the US government is engaged in special operations to orchestrate
and manipulate events and the political situation in Mindanao.
The establishment of this satellite spy network here shows the
intent of the US government to push their military and economic
agenda in Mindanao and in the Asia Pacific under the pretext of
its global campaign against terror that is already widely discredited
before the rest of the world.
We recall Ambassador Ricciardone's statement that Mindanao has
a lot of potential for growth. This could be read as the US eyeing
potential investments in the mineral-rich resources here. This
holds true in the case of the natural gas deposits in the Liguasan
Marsh and Deuterium deposits in the Philippine Deep.
The presence of the US military operatives here only disrupts
the efforts of Mindanaoans towards building a lasting peace based
on justice and democratization of the island's resources.
We laud Senator Pimentel and Congressmen Antonio Cuenco, Marcelino
Libanan, Crispin Beltran and Joel Virador for taking up the cudgels
for our national sovereignty, while the Arroyo government has
obviously reneged on this Constitutional duty.
(Sgd.) BISHOP FELIXBERTO CALANG
Convenor