Talks with the US? Are we preparing for war?

Why is it that all of a sudden the Philippine government is talking about an increased presence of American troops in this country? Are we in grave danger of fighting a real shooting war with China? Didn’t our politicians learn anything from our history when right before World War II, when we were still under the American Commonwealth, even the American military was totally unprepared for war against the Japanese.

If there was anything good at that time, at least we had the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), which created guerrillas from patriotic Filipinos who made life miserable for the occupying Japanese Imperial army. But despite my repeated appeal in this corner for the return of the ROTC, it has fallen on deaf ears from either then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo or President Benigno Aquino III. If we truly want this nation to be prepared for any eventuality, bring back the ROTC right away!

Speaking of history, it was only 22 years ago, on Sept.16, 1991 when the Philippine Senate in a vote of 12 to 11 voted to reject a new treaty for the Subic Bay Naval Station, thereby ending American military presence in this country that began on May 1, 1898 when then Admiral George Dewey sailed his Asiatic Fleet to fight the Spanish Armada in the famous Battle of Manila Bay that put an end to 400 years of Spanish rule.

I’m sure that US Embassy staffers who usually cut our columns when we write anything for or against American interest know too well how I fought hard for the renewal of American military presence way back in September 1991 for the simple reason that the Philippines being a 3rd  world country would benefit economically from the presence of the US Navy facility in Subic Bay and the US Air Force in Clark Air Force Base.

But then, Mother Nature had its own plans. Before the Philippine Senate could even vote to reject a new treaty with the US Government to keep the US bases here, Mt. Pinatubo made history as the world’s second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century. I was lucky to be in Dagupan City on June 14 driving back to Manila when at around 2:30 p.m., Mt. Pinatubo had its biggest eruption with a massive pyroclastic flows and a cloud of volcanic ash reaching the stratosphere, sending an ash cloud all over the globe. I even took a photo of this event.

The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo caused a massive air and sealift of American military assets dubbed “Operation Fiery Vigil.” Cebu was one of the major evacuation sites where around 5,000 US personnel were evacuated by plane or helicopter to the USS Midway and the USS Abraham Lincoln and many other US Navy ships. Then on July 12, 1991, the US Secretary of the Air Force announced that the US Air Force would leave the Philippines by Sept. 16, 1991. This was just a few days before the Philippine Senate voted to reject the new treaty with the US. It was therefore…moot and academic.

In short, while the Philippine Senate rejected calls for a new treaty, it no longer mattered to the US Government because by that time they have already left those shattered US military bases in Subic and Clark. Then on Nov. 5, 1991, the American Flag was lowered for the last time as the Americans turned over these military facilities to the Philippines.

Call it a time of déjà vu, because it wasn’t the first time that the Americans lowered their flag on Philippine soil because on July 4, 1946, just a year after the end of World War II and with the Philippine economy shattered by that war (with Manila considered one of the most devastated cities of that global conflict), America gave us our independence. But while they gave us our sovereignty, they kept their military presence until November 1991. Thus America washed its hands from its responsibility in rebuilding the shattered cities of the Philippines by lowering the American flag.

Cebu City is my best example as it wasn’t burned by the retreating Japanese troops. It was bombed by US B-24 Liberators, A-20 Havoc or B-25 Mitchell medium bombers. In fact our family business along Colon St. including my grandfather Don Jose Avila’s newspaper “The Advertiser,” and our movie house Teatro Oriente were bombed and razed. At this point I don’t know if the American government gave my family reparations as I was not born yet. Maybe I should ask the Yanks for reparations!

So now, back to the issue, “Why are we talking to the US government in order to boost US military presence with troops here? Don’t you think that we are inviting another potential conflict this time with China?” Or is it PNoy’s way of keeping himself in power, especially at this time when civil society and the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) are up in arms against his government because of the P10-billion scam, and the only missing link to this volatile chemistry is our military where in the 1989 coup US F-4 Phantom II “persuasion flights” stopped the coup.

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