Why Filipino activists are opposed to NATO and US militarism

Greetings of solidarity from the Philippines, a former
colony of the United States. But more importantly, a nation which resisted
colonizers and ousted dictators through revolution and people power uprisings.

Today, [14] farmers were killed in a joint police-military
operation in Negros, an island province in the Philippines

Martial law is still enforced in the whole southern
island of Mindanao.

The bloody drug war has claimed the lives of more than
20,000 people.

Rodrigo Duterte, yes, is responsible for this carnage.
He should be made to account. And we are thankful for many groups today,
especially U.S. and Filipino-American citizens, who have condemned the
deterioration of the human rights situation in the Philippines.

But there’s another monster we have to name, which is
enabling mad butchers like Duterte. This is the US-led war machine deployed in
the Asia-Pacific region. The pivot to Asia meant more funds are used to support
governments, even repressive governments, that allow the basing of US troops,
US arms, military drones, and other war materiel.

We ask the following:

Why, despite the drug war bloodbath, did the US
continue its military exercises with the Duterte government?

Why are American taxes being used to support the
Philippine military’s all-out war against farmers demanding land reform,
indigenous peoples resisting the entry of mining and logging, and suspected
sympathizers of communist groups?

The rise of an aggressive China is being used to
justify the intensified presence of US military in the Philippines

Our response is this:

We oppose China’s illegal expansion in the South China
Sea. We condemn its encroachment on our maritime territories.

But at the same time, learning from our colonial
experience, we reject the continued US military basing in the Philippines.

We endured a century of humiliating wanton plunder of
our resources, the rape of our women, the violation of our sovereignty. The US
military-led behemoth has brought nothing but poverty, misery, endless
violence, and abuse of our rights.

So we say enough. Stop funding wars in the
Philippines. Stop sending troops and weapons of destruction. Stop the
desecration of our lands. Stop this government from using American taxes to
support Duterte’s drug war, martial law, and its all-out war against the
Filipino people.

I travelled more than 8,500 miles from Manila to
Washington DC to deliver this message. A message of anger and frustration over
decades of military intervention in our land. But I will bring home inspiring
testimonies and messages of hope based from what I witnessed today. I will
share with our people your powerful solidarity to the Filipino people’s
struggle for real freedom, democracy and just peace. That even here in the US,
there is a strong and vibrant movement challenging the US war empire.  That despite our distance, we are united in
our common stand to oppose NATO, the US-led war machine, and the use of
imperialist wars to subjugate the resistance of the people.     

From Washington DC to Manila, from Bayan to Resist, the
anti-war campaign of the International League of People’s Struggle, we proudly
proclaim: No to NATO, no to the deployment of war regimes, no to racism and no
to the meddling of domestic affairs of sovereign nations.

Long live international solidarity!
Mabuhay ang pakikibaka ng lumalabang mamamayan!

Speech of Mong Palatino,
Bayan Metro Manila chairperson, during the 30 March 2019 ‘Oppose NATO, War
& Racism!’ mobilization at Washington DC

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