PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said the United States Special Forces based in Mindanao should leave.
In a speech Monday before new appointees, Duterte said that the world’s most powerful country has not yet apologized for its wrongdoings against Moros and Filipinos during the American occupation and again brought up the March 1906 Bud Dajo massacre, where hundreds of Moros, including women and children, were killed by US forces in Sulu.
Once again flashing pictures of the Bud Dajo Massacre which he presented during the Asean-East Asia Summit, Duterte said the Americans should leave to prevent further damage between Filipinos and Americans.
“The Special Forces, they have to go. They have to go. In Mindanao, there are many white men there, they have to go.
We need to review foreign policy. I just could not blurt it out before out of respect and I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go,” Duterte said.
The President added that if the Americans won’t leave, abductions by the Abu Sayyaf would “heat up again.”
Duterte continued his tirade against the country’s long-time treaty ally for being “hypocrites” amid criticism on his war against drugs.
“I am not just sowing intrigue here. It’s just that I believe America is such a hypocrite. They know actually that I have a serious problem here,” Duterte said.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte’s recent pronouncement on the presence of US troops was a step in pursuing an independent foreign policy.
“The statement reflects [Duterte’s] new direction towards coursing an independent foreign policy; he has made reference to the unrecognized, unrepented and un-atoned for massacre at Bud Dajo in Sulu by the Americans, hence our continued connection with West is the real reason for the ‘Islamic’ threat in Mindanao,” Abella said.
Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Ricardo Visaya said that at least 200 US Special Forces were left in Zamboanga to provide logistics and technical support to American troops who are in the country at any given time.
At one point, some 1,200 US Special Forces were in Zamboanga City and on Jolo and Basilan islands, both strongholds of Abu Sayyaf.
Abella said the President wanted the United States to correct the injustices they committed against the Filipinos, especially against the Muslims in Mindanao.
“The American silence on the matter lacks congruence with its ‘moral’ position, in the light of actions taken in the past by the Germans who confessed and made atonement for the Holocaust, and Japan which made reparations for the atrocities it perpetrated among the peoples they conquered,” he added.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Monday said Duterte wants to acquire defense equipment from other allies to strengthen the country’s territorial defense, rather than rely on the Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States, which has not made a difference in the government’s program to modernize its Armed Forces.
Lorenzana, however, said the alliance between the the US and the Philippines remains “rock solid.”
“The US is our ally, our military ally because of the Mutual Defense Treaty which was signed in the 1950s and it’s still there. That has not been abrogated,” he said.
Manila and Washington also have the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement which was viewed as a deterrent to Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea. But again, this has not been a factor in modernizing the AFP.
“The President said we are going to also talk with others who can supply us good equipment to strengthen our defense,” Lorenzana said.
Despite a law passed in 1995, the Armed Forces has failed to modernize.
Defense and military officials have been blaming the government’s procurement system as a major hurdle to purchasing the needed military equipment. This has been exacerbated by corruption in the bidding and negotiations of big-ticket items.
Just recently, Duterte criticized the government’s purchase of 12 FA-50 “Golden Eagle” lead-in jet fighters manufactured by Korean Aerospace Inc. for P18.9 billion.
Lorenzana corrected the President’s assertion that the aircraft were bought from the United States.
“He just made a mistake,” Lorenzana said.
Two of the single-engine aircraft were delivered in November last year but one of them was not operational because it was hit by a bird strike early this year. The remaining units are expected to be delivered in 2017.
During the presidential campaign, Duterte said the buying of the FA50s was a “waste of money.”
The Air Force has yet to equip the aircraft with armaments such as missiles and portable cannon.