Cause-oriented groups under the umbrella formation Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Thursday protested the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) citing United States impositions as their main objection to the meet.
“The biggest threat to regional peace is the US-led war on terror. The US government is guilty of continuing military intervention and military aid to fascist governments such as the Philippines’ Arroyo regime. In the guise of so-called regional security, the US is trying to outdo other nations in the race for regional supremacy,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
“United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is not sincere at all when he calls on the Philippine government to stop the killings. The fact that the US continues to fund and train the Armed Forces of the Philippines means that the Bush government condones the gross human rights record of the Philippine military,” Reyes added.
The Philippines is the biggest recipient of US foreign military financing and military training. American funding of the AFP has been questioned by human rights advocates in the light of recorded abuses by the Philippine military against unarmed activists.
Reyes said that the US-led war on terror has imposed on ASEAN member countries such agreements as the ASEAN convention on counter-terrorism which calls on member nations to enact anti-terror legislation.
“The US government continues to pressure the ASEAN and their puppet governments into supporting the discredited ‘war on terror.’ In the Philippines, the puppet government of Gloria Arroyo has implemented the anti-terror law, a measure that will escalate repression and human rights abuses,” Reyes said.
“We want to tell the US government that Southeast Asia is not its military playground. We don’t need the US war on terror. We don’t need US military aid,” Reyes added.
Reyes also criticized the Bush government and the Philippine government for their “feigned concern” over the human rights situation in the Philippines and in the region.
“The ASEAN and the ARF are regional conduits of the Bush government’s war on terror. It only sees Myanmar but turns a blind eye to the gross human rights record of the Arroyo government,” Reyes said.