As the Philippine Army bragged about the $8.9 million worth of protective equipment it has received as a grant from the US, under the US Excess Defense Articles Program, the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) warned of “those who bring gifts in one hand and a knife in the other.”
The grant, according to Army spokesman Maj. Ronald Alcudia, covers …

The US Troops Out Now! Mindanao Coalition believes that Secretary Clinton’s rhetoric of supporting peace in Mindanao must begin with the scrapping of the VFA, the pull out some 600 embedded American soldiers in Mindanao, and the demolition of US military structures in the island.

MILITARY   The administration appears set to allow unspecified numbers of foreign military personnel into the country in early May 2009 for “disaster relief training exercises” despite the absence of treaties giving this legal basis as required by the Constitution.

GENDER ISSUES   Filipino-American women urge President Obama to look thoroughly into the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) as it clearly justifies violence against Filipino women in the hands of US military servicemen and at the expense of US tax payer dollars.

CARLOS H. CONDE   BIO   |   MORE POSTS
Reading and rereading Nicole’s it, I am convinced that, more than anything else, it was meant to depict Smith in a benign light, that he was not the monster that this case has made him out to be.

MILITARY   By Alexander Martin Remollino  |  There is still a month before the Balikatan exercises begin in Bicol, but already, preparations for these have claimed the life of a one-year-old girl and brought about US military intervention, with US troops manning checkpoints.

The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, an alliance of 14 Filipino organizations across the United States, condemns the arrogant and costly continuance of the so-called “joint military exercises” between US and Philippine troops known as Balikatan under the auspices of the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), despite widespread opposition from the Filipino people. In April 2009, …

The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan will lead protest actions tomorrow calling for the abrogation of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement and a stop to the Balikatan exercises. The mass actions will be held in Manila and in Legazpi City in Albay. The Bicol protest will be in coordination with the Bicol Alliance For Nationalism Against Balikatan. In Manila, protesters …

Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano today assailed Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro’s statement treating the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States like “wedlock” between the two countries. He said that “the relationship between the two countries is marred with “historical injustice and continuing master-slave relations” and cited more inequalities under the decade-old VFA.
Mariano issued the statement after …