US Troops: Terrorizing Women and Children

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Press Statement
February 22, 2008
From the Desk of: Atty. Virginia Suarez-Pinlac, Spokesperson, KAISA KA-KPD

The Philippine Senate should terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement and send US troops in Mindanao and Sulu out of the country now or people, especially women and children, will remain gripped in terror.

No self-respecting sovereign nation would allow foreign troops to run circles around its own army as well as its own citizenry which has been the case with the permanent presence of these US troops since 2002.

The shooting incident that happened on February 4, 2008 in Barangay Ipil in Maimbung, Sulu was clearly a massacre. As established by the fact finding mission of the Citizens’ Peace Watch, Filipino and American soldiers fired at civilians. Nine people including a pregnant woman and two children got killed. The survivors of the incident are not only grieving. They cower in fear as they remember the barbaric rampage.

This is not the first incident US soldiers got involved in shooting of civilians. Earlier, a certain Sgt. Reggie Lane fired at a civilian, Buyong-Buyong Isnijal, in Basilan.

The national government and the US Embassy should stop making cover up for the involvement of these foreign troops in crimes against the people. After all, the terror and the social problems that result from their presence and operations far outweigh the benefits of their so-called humanitarian missions.

Prostitution is flourishing in areas surrounding the US bases. The “rest and recreation needs” of the US soldiers encourage this phenomenon. It will not take long before the country confronts a host of other social problems related to this—illegal drugs proliferation, more sexual abuse and violence against women and children, abandoned Amerasians, and a rise in the cases of sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS.

We call on the Philippine Senate to conduct an immediate investigation of the massacre and the whole conduct of the US troops in Mindanao instead of ratifying into a new treaty the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement with Australia. The senators should see for themselves the US facilities and make a firm stand to end Visiting Forces Agreement.# # #