Clash mars PH launch of internationally coordinated protests vs Obama Asia trip
InterAksyon.com | April 23, 2014
Clash mars PH launch of internationally coordinated protests vs Obama Asia trip
MANILA – Filipino militant groups launched Wednesday a series of mass actions against what they called the “US imperialist agenda in Asia,” just as United States President Barack Obama was set to arrive in Japan on the first leg of his East Asia tour that will also include the Philippines.
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) marched to the US embassy in Manila, but its members later clashed with Manila police. In a statement, Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. said: “The US pivot to Asia combines military rebalancing and free trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). The US seeks to maintain its dominance in the region by violating the national sovereignty and plundering the economies of their so-called ‘allies’. The people of Asia stand to gain nothing from the Obama visit and the US agenda he carries.”
Bayan is coordinating with various anti-bases and anti-globalization groups in Japan, South Korea and the United States for a series of protests against the US pivot and the TPPA. Apart from the April 23 protest in Manila, anti-bases and anti-war groups in Japan such as the Asia-Wide Campaign are set to hold protests in time for the US-Japan Summit on April 24. Groups in South Korea are also expected to hold protests against US military bases in the Korean peninsula and the continued implementation of the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the promotion of the TPPA. Bayan-USA will join Japanese and Korean activists in the US for coordinated actions in the afternoon of April 25 in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and San Francisco. Filipino migrants are expected to hold protest actions on April 27.
On April 28 and 29, Bayan will lead a nationally coordinated protest as Obama lands in Manila. The militants said he will witness the signing of the Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation, which they called a de facto basing pact disguised as an access agreement, and which Sen. Miriam Santiago had deemed unconstitutional if it is not concurred in by the Philippine Senate.
“We will fight the new defense agreement with the US. We oppose this new form of US military occupation and colonization. The US military and economic agenda will only reinforce the status of the Philippines as an American neo-colony, and Philippine president Benigno Aquino III as Obama’s cheerleader and puppet in Asia,” Reyes said.
“We demand regional peace and development. We join our friends from Japan, Korea, Guam, and Australia to demand the removal of US troops in Asia and the Pacific. We reject US economic dictates as we fight for genuine economic sovereignty. We condemn both the Aquino and Obama regimes for exploiting the maritime dispute with China in order to justify entrenching US troops in the region. Our national interest will not be served if we take the side of one bully against another,” he added.
Earlier Tuesday, Bayan and other groups picketed the Chinese consulate in Makati City to denounce its bullying and its continued moves to harangue Manila for filing a complaint with the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea over Beijing’s “excessive claims” of the 9-dash line in the South China Sea. The left-leaning groups stressed, though, that while they denounced China’s aggression, they do not want the Philippines to fall into the mode of believing that it is the US that will save the country from its giant neighbor.
