Anti-VFA

I.

“The VFA is crucial to building strong Philippines and maintaining a stable Asia-Pacific.” I can say that this can be contradicted since USA can be a threat to peace in Asia-Pacific. As Miss said, USA can take advantage of our country by having us as a strategic position on surveillance to China. If this will happen, it may result to war and of course, Philippines will be implicated.

Second is that “US is our largest source of foreign military financing,” allocate a lot of money to strengthen security at our borders etc. But why are they giving all of these to us? It cannot be something out of kindness because we all know that a State do not have that. And from our discussion US need an agreement such as VFA because they need ports, training facilities and logistical bases and to make the Philippines a support base for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. So it means that they are giving us those aids for their own benefit and not to ours and maybe for their other hidden agendas.

Third is “VFA facilitates RP-US cooperation eliminating the scourge of terrorism.” In the article, it was stated that Philippine forces was given by US logistic and intelligence assistance, and they were able to capture and kill some of the members of the Abu Sayyaf Group. If the VFA is really effective and if US is sincerely helping the Philippines on eliminating this small group of terrorists, they would have already pulverized the Abu Sayyaf Group in the span of 12 years since the VFA was signed on 1998.

Fourth is “the civic-humanitarian component of VFA-related exercises also form the backbone of the soft approach to combating terrorism and fosters inter-faith cooperation between Christian and Muslim communities” and it was clearly seen when US Senator Daniel Inouye visited the Philippines and seen Christians and Muslim Filipinos in Zamboanga cheering on US troops and waving the flags of both countries. Do they think that those Filipinos that waving their flags are aware of the VFA? For me, Filipinos are really appreciative to foreigners. That instance may seem that it was just a plain motorcade of a Pinoy celebrity. If they only know that the US is here to exploit our country and ‘help’ us for their own benefit, I don’t think they will be waving their US flags anymore.

Lastly, “The VFA directly benefits the Filipino people through it civil-military and humanitarian component .” The article stated that the US forces helped for the welfare of the Filipinos through medical missions, donations, constructions of building, etc. But we can remember that once there was a controversial story about a Filipina that was raped by an American soldier and we know that the Nicole rape case was neither the first nor the last.

I am not against with the country USA because if I say that I dislike the United States of America, I am a hypocrite because I love their products and I want to go to their country. It is just this agreement and on how they blind us Filipinos that they are here to help but then again they have their hidden agendas behind their aids to us that I really hate.

II.

I believe that the Visiting Forces Agreement does not affect me as an individual directly. But it can affect me by the rights that the agreement is giving to the US soldiers. It affects me as an individual that is a resident of the Philippines because those US soldiers have more privileges and immunities than us Filipinos. That is so unfair that someone from another country has more privileges than the resident of that country.