“Again, the servile nature of this government to US Imperialism is being exposed.”

This was how the anti-imperialist League of Filipino Students described the continuing insistence of the Arroyo government to continue the operation of the militarist and unpatriotic Visiting Forces Agreement, despite the growing clamor from civil society groups, lawmakers and even Justices of the Supreme Court for the VFA’s abrogation.

“After selling out Philippine territory through the soon-to-be-signed Baselines bill, this government seems hell-bent on completely surrendering Philippine sovereignty to foreign superpowers.” said Terry Ridon, spokesperson of the LFS.

He added that Philippine foreign policy remains in ‘absolute kowtow’ to US ‘imperial‘interests in the Asia-Pacific region.

“In the past half-century of Philippine’s nominal independence from the United States, we have failed to implement an independent foreign policy, in which the country asserts sovereignty over its resources, laws and development frameworks against foreign intrusion.” he said.

He said this clear absence of an independent foreign policy has strangled genuine economic development in the country, with the United States opposing many pro-people development paradigms such as genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization. The VFA and the Mutual Defense treaty are no exceptions.

“A growing consensus is building among our people for the abrogation of the VFA, due to the unequal, militarist and colonial nature of the very agreement. This government should take heed of this. Its stubbornness might trigger a new round of large protest movements in the style of the massive mobilizations during the anti-US Bases campaign in the 1990s.” Ridon says finally. ###