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Friday, March 28, 2008
Authorities drove away protesters
By Annabelle L. Ricalde
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Security has been so tight around the USS Vandegrift that protesters were driven away by Philippine naval authorities a kilometer away from Macabalan, Cagayan de Oro City Thursday where the warship was docked.
The protesters, who were on 10 motorized bancas, headed back to shore when a Philippine Coast Guard boat, which headed towards them, threatened to arrest all of them if they insist to continue to go near the US missile guided frigate.
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"May permit po ba sila to rally? (Do they have a permit to rally)" said a Philippine Navy officer aboard the Philippine Navy patrol boat 393.
The officer, a certain Agudelo, later told reporters it was not they who drove away the activists. He said their boat just happened to be at the vicinity because it was drawing water for drinking.
Aside from the Navy patrol boat, two other boats are moored a few hundred meters from USS Vandegrift. A perimeter made of buoys is cast around the American warship as Philippine Navy frogmen on a rubber boat patrol nearby. Even Badjaos (sea gypies) who went fishing on bancas were driven away.
Police officers from the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office told reporters that they saw US frogmen providing security underneath USS Vandegrift.
At the dock, the USS warship, which is armed with latest weaponry, is surrounded with container vans to deter any possible attack. US sailors armed with M16 rifles patrol the pier.
Guests and visitors have to pass through a checkpoint where anti-vehicle measures made of steel spikes were laid to the concrete pier.
USS Vandergrift, a 4,100-ton frigate, is in Cagayan de Oro City on a goodwill mission. City Government officials led by Mayor Constantino Jaraula welcome the visit.
"Mayor Jaraula is optimistic that the goodwill visit of USS Vandegrift will boost the city's reputation as a safe place in Mindanao where foreign guests can visit for tourism or investment purposes," the press statement from City Hall said.
It added that Commander Dean Rawls, commanding officer of the ship, "extended the invitation to Mayor Jaraula and other city officials for a ship tour and refreshments when the ship arrived last Tuesday.
The visit of the ship, the statement said, "is part of the highlights of the recent inauguration of the MacArthur Memorial Marker at the Macabalan Port Area which established the significant role of Cagayan de Oro in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's escape to Australia, and put the city in the map of world history."
But anti-US militants said the visit of USS Vandegrift was just a "ruse" to project American power in the country and Asia.
"How the USS Vandergrift is freely entering ports in Mindanao is suspect. Whether this is part of the areas covered in the terms of reference in Balikatan 08, the Philippine government must answer," said lawyer Beverly Selim-Musni, Convener, Out Now! Mindanao.
Musni said the US warship visited General Santos City last March 11 to 12, according to the government website of the said city.
"The USS Vandegrift, by any means, is not on a goodwill mission. It is a guided-missile frigate that is the flagship of the commander of the Seventh Fleet. It had played crucial logistics support for the US military in wars in the Persian Gulf. It is the first US military ship that docked in Vietnam 30 years since the defeat of American forces in the Vietnam War. Its critical role in the political and military agenda of the US in the Philippines can not therefore be underestimated," Musni said.
She added: "This so-called goodwill visit cannot erase from our minds the recent report of a Filipina OFW raped by a US serviceman in Okinawa, Japan last February 18 (as the Balikatan exercises commenced in Mindanao). American forces have not shown goodwill in many parts of the globe, surely we can not expect the same in Mindanao. For that we cannot simply allow US war vessels and troops to come in freely and roam our cities, now do we simply surrender our sovereignty."
Musni said the visit of the US warship is to "bring its humanitarian and goodwill intentions at the tip of the barrel of the cannon."
Fr. Antonio Ablon of Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) said US troops were just using the Visiting Force Agreement (VFA) as license for them to freely docked anywhere in the Philippines without any specific Terms of Reference (TOR) as provided in the 2002 RP-US Balikatan exercises.
"Kon ang pronouncement ni Mayor Jaraula nga makabuild og frienship walay problema ana pero nganong kini pang guided missile ship ang gipadala (We have no problem with the announcement of Mayor Jaraula that it will build friendship but why bring a guided missile ship?" Ablon said. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (March 28, 2008 issue)
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