Use of Lumbia Airport as American base opposed

WE, FROM the League of Filipino Students–Northern Mindanao Region (LFS-NMR), reiterate our vehement condemnation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) between the Philippines and the
United States.

We denounce the Aquino administration for allowing the hosting by the Philippines of US military troops and facilities.

The Edca shows that President Aquino suffers from historical amnesia; he is clearly oblivious to the tragic record of US interventionism in the Philippines and the scrapping by the Filipino people of the Military Bases Agreement in 1991. With the Edca, Mr. Aquino insults the memory of Filipinos who shed their blood and laid down their lives in defense of our country and people, and of our sovereignty and our freedoms.

Rubbing salt into the wound, the Edca designates the civilian Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro City as one of the sites that may be used by American forces as a base of operations. This is outrageous, an insult to the revolutionary general Nicolas Capistrano and his men who fought to defend Cagayan de Oro from American occupation.

We can’t afford another Jennifer Laude to fall victim to the lust of American servicemen. We won’t allow prostitution, HIV/AIDS, and antisocial activities to destroy our city. We don’t want US nuclear and toxic wastes to kill thousands of our people. And we resolutely resist the presence of US military camps, facilities or bases in our country, as these make a mockery of our history of struggle for territorial integrity.

We call on President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to junk the Edca (which the Aquino administration conveniently classified as an executive agreement) and all other lopsided agreements, like the Visiting Forces Agreement, the

Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, and the Mutual Defense Treaty.

More than ever, we are challenging all patriotic, nationalist young Filipinos to unite and fight against all forms of US interventionism in the country. We should resist the installation of a US base in Lumbia Airport. Together with the

Filipino people, let us intensify the struggle for national sovereignty and territorial integrity!

—KRISTINE CABARDO,spokesperson,
League of Filipino Students-Northern Mindanao Region,
[email protected]