So-called US humanitarian mission in Samar a guise for military intervention

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Eastern Visayas expressed today that the Pacific Friendship 2008 ending this June – a "humanitarian mission" by the US Navy in Samar – is but a guise for foreign military intervention and tramples on national sovereignty.

"Because it is confronted by people's resistance worldwide and thus fighting on so many fronts, the US currently relies on psychological warfare operations and selected deployments of its special operations forces," said Fr. Santiago Salas, NDFP-EV spokesperson.

"The principal fighting forces of the US are currently bogged down trying to quell the anti-occupation resistance movements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thus in other countries like the Philippines where it has strategic interests, the US has in recent years resorted to feigned humanitarian missions such as the recent one in Samar, and the Balikatan war exercises where US special operations forces train their counterparts in the puppet Philippine military."



Fr. Salas noted that the US Navy "humanitarian mission" in Calbayog City and nearby towns in western and northern Samar has ulterior motives such as propagating US interests as well as supporting the Oplan Bantay Laya 2 campaign of the Philippine military, which has killed many innocent people and ruined the lives of the peasants in the countryside.

"The US armed forces cannot pretend to be humanitarian, when the US is arming and supporting the puppet Philippine military responsible for killing so many political activists and civilians under Oplan Bantay Laya 2.



"Uninvited missions such as Pacific Friendship 2008 merely serve as the cover to dupe the people that the US military is benevolent rather than belligerent, and also gives the opportunity for covert operations.

Moreover, the relations maintained by the Arroyo government with the US, like the Balikatan war exercises as well as the Visiting Forces Agreement/Status of Forces Agreement, are clearly betrayals of national interests and facilitate US military intervention."



The NDFP-EV spokesperson also said that the US troops are regarded by the people's democratic government as hostile foreign belligerents and are thus legitimate targets for attack by the New People's Army.

"It gravely concerns the people's democratic government that these foreign troops even access the hinterlands, and at the height of Oplan Bantay Laya 2 by the Armed Forces of the Philippines at that. Eastern Visayas is a priority area in the Arroyo regime's counterrevolutionary campaign, which is concentrating on Samar in particular this 2008.

The US Navy mission morally and materially supports the AFP's Oplan Bantay Laya 2. It is thus the responsibility of the New People's Army to carry out offensive actions against the US troops as necessary in defense of the homeland.

Fr. Santiago "Sanny" Salas

Spokesperson in Eastern Visayas

National Democratic Front of the Philippines

June 16, 2008