Communist Lawmakers Want US, PHL, JPN Military Drill Immediately Stopped

Militant lawmakers on Wednesday urged government to immediately stop the ongoing military drill between the Philippine and Japanese military, saying it is violating the Philippine constitution and risking the country’s sovereignty.

As reported in GMA News, ACT-Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio accuses President Benigno Aquino III, saying the latter has committed “a gross and blatant violation” of the constitutional prohibition on foreign troops, by allowing the Armed Forces of the Philippines to hold a joint exercise with Japanese military forces.

The communist representative added that the president committed a crime by allowing a foreign military plane to circle over the disputed islands. The Japanese P3 Orion reconnaissance plane took off from an airfield in Palawan and circled over the Recto bank in West Philippine Sea.

Tinio added that any foreign military presence in the country is prohibited by the law unless authorized by the Senate-ratified treaty.

He said the existing agreements the Philippines has with Japan, such as the Memorandum on Defense Cooperation and Exchanges signed by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and his Japanese counterpart last January, or the declaration for a strengthened strategic partnership recently signed by Aquino and Japanese Prime Minister Abe, do not fulfill the constitutional requirement for a Senate ratified treaty and cannot therefore be cited as legal basis for Japanese military activities in the Philippines.

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“By all means, our territory must be defended against Chinese encroachment in the West Philippine Sea. But this must be done without surrendering national sovereignty and within the bounds of the Constitution. President Aquino is knowingly and deliberately violating the Constitution and our nation’s sovereignty in pursuing expanded Japanese military presence within our territory,” Tinio said in a statement.

For his part another communist lawmaker, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Fernando Hicap said the ongoing military exercises with Japan are “grimly treasonous to the historical struggle of Filipinos against foreign aggression.

“Military exercises with US and Japan is Aquino’s grandest treachery to our history and endangerment to the country.  These countries have colonized us, killed and raped many Filipinos but are now in collusion with Aquino,” he said.

“For a country formerly occupied by Japan to host Japanese military forces on its soil would be unprecedented in post-World War 2 history, and President Aquino will have the ignominy of making it happen,” he said.

“A policy of self-reliance and neutrality is the only way for the Philippines to achieve a peaceful resolution to the South China Sea crisis,” Tinio said.

ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) and Anakpawis are both affiliated with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and practices Maoism ideology. Many political analysts believe that some Chinese businessmen are behind these militant groups.

/Carla Gamboa/

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