Cebu Daily News / Opinion

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view_article.php?article_id=157552

COMMENTARY Commentary : US interests in Mindanao Cebu Daily News Posted date: August 29, 2008 The United States sees China as its next strategic enemy after Islamic extremists and are concerned about Chinese activities in the Spratly Islands, below which are believed to have vast deposits of petroleum and mineral ores. The Americans’ forward bases and listening posts in Sulu and Basilan, though meant primarily to monitor Jemaah Islamiyah activities in Indonesia and Malaysia, also serve their other purpose of monitoring Chinese activities in the Spratlys through intelligence-gathering ships and aircraft, as well as drones or pilot-less Predators. These double-barreled operations in Mindanao-Sulu-Basilan in turn are dictated by a policy declaration by the neo-conservatives as early as September 2000 – one year before 9/11 and four months before George W. Bush assumed the presidency in January 2001. This declaration, titled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” was signed by the neo-cons gathered together as the Project for the New American Century. In this policy declaration, the neo-cons called for, among other things, a permanent US military presence in the Middle East (hence the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and, possibly soon, Iran), regime change in Beijing (hence the constant putdowns against the Chinese), and increased US forces in Southeast Asia (hence the US presence in Mindanao-Sulu). In the Philippine context, the neo-cons may have debated among themselves how their dual-purpose presence in Mindanao-Sulu can be maintained, given the unreliability of President Arroyo. In July 2004, President Arroyo withdrew the 51-man Philippine contingent from the “Coalition of the Willing” in Iraq to save the life of the kidnapped Angelo de la Cruz. In October the same year, she signed an agreement with Beijing for the joint exploration for oil in the Spratlys, which caused the Heritage Foundation, one of the three think tanks that draft policies for the Republican Party, to call her “the weakest leader in Asia.” President Arroyo approved 29 contracts with the Chinese in 2006-2007 for various projects, including one (the exceptionally corrupt ZTE broadband contract) that would have given the Chinese a ringside view of American moves and decisions in and about the Philippines. She was either tempting the fates or was blissfully ignorant of the geopolitical implications of her decisions. Whether or not the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leads to Bangsamoro independence is of no existential concern to the Americans, who have now established their bona fides with the MILF and can look forward to pursuing their twin goals in the region without too much hassle from the resident Muslims. The “nationalist” politicians in Manila, who threw them out of their bases in 1991, can all go to hell in China. That is how the Chinese fortune cookie crumbles. — Antonio C. Abaya, www.tapatt.org