U.S. Military to stay in Philippines

The article never mentions that the Philippine government might have some say in whether these units stay in the Philippines. It is taken for granted that Arroyo thinks this is fine, and that is no doubt correct. However, there has always been opposition to the U.S. presence and although the troops are not supposed to be directly involved in battle there is a suspicion that sometimes they may be.
The MILF group leaders are in peace talks with the Arroyo government, the article must mean some renegade leaders who had taken up arms again. Abu Sayyaf is still active even though some of their leaders may be captured.
This rah rah article is from the New York Times..



August 21, 2009
U.S. Military to Stay in Philippines
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has decided to keep an elite 600-troop counterinsurgency operation deployed in the Philippines despite pressure to reassign its members to fulfill urgent needs elsewhere, like in Afghanistan or Iraq, according to Pentagon officials.
The high-level attention given to the future of the force, known as the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, illustrates the Pentagon’s difficulty in finding enough of these highly trained units for assignments to two wars — as well as for the wider effort to combat insurgencies and militancy in other parts of the world deemed to be threats to American interests.
Senior officials said the decision also acknowledged a cautionary lesson from Afghanistan: that battlefield success should be rewarded with sustained commitment, while prematurely turning the military’s attention elsewhere — as when the Bush administration shifted focus to Iraq — provides insurgents and terrorists the opportunity to rush back in.
In the seven years that the Philippines-based American force has been operating, its members have trained local security units and provided logistical and intelligence support to Filipino forces fighting insurgents.
Senior officials say the American force and partners in the Central Intelligence Agency were instrumental in successes by the Filipino armed forces in killing and capturing leaders of the militant group Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, antigovernment organizations operating in the south.
......................................The American ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie A. Kenney, said that measuring the impact of the military mission there was difficult, but she emphasized that the task force’s efforts were multiplied by being closely coordinated with the Filipino government and American development assistance.
..............................

Moro group: US forces helping in offensive against MILF rebels.

Involvement of U.S. forces in these clashes is always kept under wraps as far as possible since the Filipinos often react negatively to U.S. military involvement. However, the connection between the U.S. and AFP seems rather close in terms of training and even joint exercises.



http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080909-159655/US-forces-helping-in-offensives-vs-MILF-rebels--Moro-group
US forces helping in offensives vs MILF rebels--Moro group
By Inquirer MindanaoPhilippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: September 09, 2008
COTABATO CITY, Philippines—A Moro group on Tuesday said US forces have been helping in the offensives against Moro Islamic Liberation front rebels in Maguindanao.
But the military denied it even in the wake of photos taken by the Philippine Daily Inquirer which showed US forces holding an unmanned aerial vehicle during the early days of the offensive against the forces of MILF Commanders Ameril Ombra Kato and Wahid Tundok.
The US forces were seen inside an Army camp in Datu Saudi Ampatuan on August 24, when government troops were shelling Kato's position.
Bai Ali Indayla, spokesperson of Moro human rights group Kawagib, said there were also instances when they saw American forces in full battle gear with Filipino troops in Maguindanao last month.
"We do not know what more the Armed Forces of the Philippines and US troops were doing inside Maguindanao with their covert operations. Last night, there was a helicopter flying at night within Maguindanao areas but we cannot see it because it's dark," Indayla said Tuesday.
Colonel Marlou Salazar, commander of the 601st Infantry Brigade, who supervises the punitive action against Kato's group, declined to comment on photos of US forces holding the body and wings of a white unmanned aerial vehicle inside the military camp in Crossing Salvo in Datu Saudi town.
During the anti-Abu Sayyaf operations in Sulu in 2006, US forces also used drones to track down Khadaffy Janjalani and other bandit leaders.
Major General Eugenio Cedo, then commander of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said the drones were used for intelligence gathering purposes.
One of the drones later crashed in Indanan and was recovered by village officials.
Major Armand Rico, spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) in Davao City, said he could not confirm if spy planes were being used in Maguindanao.
Commenting on the Inquirer photos, Rico said: "We could not confirm it is a spy plane. We still cannot ascertain. The ones being used by US soldiers were bigger than that."
Salazar also did not comment on photos taken by the Inquirer, which showed other US soldiers inside the said camp.
"You ask them (US soldiers)," he said.
Rico said there is an ongoing exercise with US forces in Central Mindanao which began about last month.
"There is an ongoing training there. There are many courses involved, (explosive ordinance handling), monitoring, engineering and (handling of) technical equipment," he said.
He said the stay of US forces inside the military camp in Crossing Salvo could still be part of the said exercise.
As to allegations US soldiers were seen with their Filipino counterparts, Salazar said: "The rules they follow, if something happened on the ground like clashes, they will stay and remain in an Army camp."
The US Embassy in Manila has repeatedly denied US forces have joined combat operations.
But Herbert Docena, researcher of the Focus on the Global South and author of the books "At the Door of All the East, The Philippines in the United States Military Strategy," and "Unconventional Warfare--Are US Special Forces engaged in an Offensive War in the Philippines?" was consistent in his claim that "US troops in the Philippines are into actual combat operation with the Filipino forces."
"It's ludicrous, very ridiculous for our government and for the United States to declare their soldiers are not into combat operations," Docena told the Inquirer by phone Tuesday.
Docena said "they are stretching the meaning of combat."
"If they say their activity is not combat like searching for dud bombs, conducting intelligence gathering, evacuating wounded soldiers, (then) they are not just lying to the Filipino people or to the public, they are also lying to themselves," he said.
Docena said even the United States Army War manual described their operation as "combat operations."
In Lanao del Norte, several US soldiers arrived Tuesday as the military was intensifying its manhunt against another MILF commander, Abdullah Macapaar alias Commander Bravo.
But Colonel Benito Antonio Templo De Leon, who took over the helm of the 104th Infantry Brigade, said no US soldiers will be joining the manhunt.
The center of the operation now, he said, is in Mt. Gurain, which borders the two Lanao provinces.
He said aside from soldiers, the Philippine National Police is also helping in the operation against Bravo.
As this developed, the local government of Datu Piang in Maguindanao has called for an investigation into the death of six civilians, including a teenage mother and two children, during an alleged military air strike on Monday morning.
Musib Tan, spokesperson of the Datu Piang municipal government, said witnesses have confirmed claims that the bomb came from a military aircraft.
The victims were fleeing the fighting aboard a motorized banca when they were hit by an explosion, Tan said.
Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said the 6th Infantry Division was conducting an investigation.
"We're not hiding anything here. The reported deaths of the six alleged civilians happened right in the area where MILF fighters were firing shots at aircraft hovering above them," Ando said.
He said the military only flew "persuasion flights" but no bombings were conducted.
Samsudin Ali, a 50-year-old Muslim farmer, said they were certain that a bomb or a rocket landed on the motorized banca.
"Na-direct hit ang pump boat, makapal ang usok (smoke was thick)," Ali said.
Tan also said metal fragments pierced through the bodies of the victims.
The incident has also triggered alarm over villagers in other parts of Datu Saudi and Datu Piang towns.
On Monday afternoon, the Datu Piang town plaza had already been teeming with displaced persons.
In Datu Saudi, Tan said the number of evacuees has already swelled to more than 10,000 following the influx Monday of another batch seeking refuge from the violence.
"Not only are we attending to our Maguindanao constituents, but also Muslim evacuees from Aleosan and Midsayap in North Cotabato," Tan said.
As this developed, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police were ordered to ensure the safety of relief workers following the alleged hijacking of a truck loaded with rice from the World Food Program (WFP) in Mamasapano town.
Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, police chief for ARMM, said the police were willing to provide armed police escorts to relief organizations.

©Copyright 2001-2008 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company

In the Dragon's Lair

This is part of an article from Asiatimes. Those humanitarian and infra-structure programs of the U.S. military are designed to make the Philippines easily available for use by U.S. forces. I wonder if these secret CSL's or Co-operative Security Locations are even discussed in the Philippines. Don't be surprised if there is some corruption involving them and key filipino politicians and business people.






IN THE DRAGON'S LAIR

US prowls for China in the Philippines
By Herbert Docena Since the closure of its military bases in the country in 1991, the United States has incrementally regained, transformed and deepened its military presence and intervention in the Philippines. The manner in which the US has attempted to re-establish basing in the Philippines illustrates its attempts to radically overhaul its global offensive capabilities to become more agile and efficient while overcoming mounting domestic opposition to its presence around the world. The objectives with which the United States has sought to achieve this in the Philippines - a country that is firmly within what US analysts and strategists call "the dragon's lair" - point to the
emerging US strategy toward what it has officially identified as the one country with "the greatest potential to compete with the United States" - China. In this strategy, the Philippines, by virtue both of its location as well as its political disposition towards the US relative to its neighbors, plays a crucial role. Basing without basesAfter George W Bush came to power, the US began to attempt in earnest to implement what its proponents bill as the most comprehensive reconfiguration of its global military presence since World War II. The underlying rationale is clear: the positioning and forms of US military bases of the past - built as they were for the Cold War - no longer suffice for the present. The US overseas basing must therefore be transformed so as to enable the US military to become leaner and meaner, quicker and more agile. In the Philippines, as in a growing number of places around the world, the one persistent constraint for both the US and Philippine governments, however, has been the long-standing domestic sensitivity to US bases in the country. This opposition was actually an important - if not the decisive - factor in the decision to close the bases in 1991 and in the adoption in the post-Ferdinand Marcos 1987 constitution of provisions banning foreign military bases in the country. As it has embarked on the project of transforming its global presence, the US has also sought to adapt to and undermine domestic opposition to its bases. In this, the US military's reconceptualization of its global military presence - no longer as merely a collection of physical structures but as a global "posture" - is illuminating. By posture, explained US Under Secretary of Defense Douglas J Feith, "We are not talking only about basing, we're talking about the ability of our forces to operate when and where they are needed." Thus, recognizing that the local political situation is not yet ripe for the re-establishment of the kind of large military bases it once had in the Philippines, the United States has instead moved to achieve this ability in various other ways. Recurring deploymentsThe United States has been deploying a growing number of its troops, ships and equipment all over the Philippines ostensibly for training exercises, humanitarian and engineering projects, and other missions. In 2006 alone, up to 37 military exercises were scheduled - up from around 24 in the preceding years. As many as 6,000 US troops are involved, depending on the exercise. Although packaged as on-and-off temporary programs to train US and Filipino troops, such exercises are seen as an alternative way for the US military to secure access to the Philippines. "The habitual relationships built through exercises and training," former US Pacific Command head Admiral Thomas Fargo noted in March 2003, "is our biggest guarantor of access in time of need." He continued: "Access over time can develop into habitual use of certain facilities by deployed US forces with the eventual goal of being guaranteed use in a crisis, or permission to preposition logistics stocks and other critical material in strategic forward locations." As US troops come and go in rotation for frequent and regular exercises, their presence - when taken together - makes up a formidable forward presence that brings them closer to areas of possible action without need for huge infrastructure to support them and without inciting a lot of public attention and opposition. As the US National Defense Strategy states, "Our posture also includes the many military activities in which we engage around the world. This means not only our physical presence in key regions, but also our training, exercises, and operations." Along with troops, an increasing number of ships have also been entering the country's territorial waters and docking at various ports with growing frequency. Such ship visits are also seen as ways to establish presence. As the US Congressional Budget Office has pointed out, The Navy counts those ships as providing overseas presence full time, even when they are training or simply tied up at the pier." Dual-use infrastructureApart from the troop deployments and ship visits, the US has also been constructing an increasing number of structures and facilities that could be useful for the US military when the contingency arises - while at the same time allowing it to buy political support from the national and local governments. In various parts of the country, especially in the southern regions of Mindanao, the US has been engaged in a flurry of construction activities, building or renovating airports, piers, wharves, roads and other infrastructure. In General Santos City, for example, the US constructed a deep-water port and one of the most modern airports in the country, connected to each other by one of the country's best roads. Why the United States was so intent on financing and building this modern airport in a small city where relatively few passenger or cargo planes land could not be explained if not for its potential military use. In Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, where US troops routinely go for exercises, the airport has been renovated and its runway strengthened to carry the weight of C-130 planes. In Sulu, the US is renovating the airport, upgrading roads, and building ports that can berth huge ships. All this is consistent with a US Air Force (USAF)-funded study which recommended having more deployments to have more infrastructure. By increasing deployments, notes the study, the United States can get into arrangements that "include measures to tailor local infrastructure to USAF operations by extending runways, improving air traffic control facilities, repairing parking aprons and the like". Cooperative security locationsThe US is also establishing in the Philippines a new category of military installations it calls "Cooperative Security Locations" (CSLs). As part of the innovations introduced in the ongoing revamping of the global US network of bases, CSLs refer to facilities owned either by host-governments or even by private companies that are to be made available for use by the US military as needed. According to the Pentagon, these CSLs are to be run and maintained by either host governments or private contractors and are as useful for prepositioning logistics support or as venues for joint operations with host militaries. While intended to be small so as not to attract attention, they could be expanded to become larger bases when necessary. In August 2005, the US Overseas Basing Commission, the official commission tasked to review US basing, categorically identified the Philippines as one of the countries where such CSLs are being developed by the US in the region. The Philippine government, however, has refused to disclose the locations and other details about these CSLs. Base services without basingThe US has obliged the Philippines to provide it with a broad range of locally provided services that would enable it to launch and sustain operations from the Philippines when necessary. In November 2002, the US and Philippine governments signed the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), which researchers with the US Congressional Research Service describe as "allowing the United States to use the Philippines as a supply base for military operations throughout the region". The MLSA obliges the Philippine government to provide the US with logistical supplies, support and services during exercises, training, operations, and other US military deployments. These supplies include food, water, petroleum, oils, clothing, ammunition, spare parts and components, billeting, transportation, communication, medical services, operation support, training services, repair and maintenance, storage .