Why We Must Care About the Philippines
While the Philippines has a long-standing colonial and now Neo-colonial relationship with the U.S., the details of this state to state engagement are often misconstrued, and the people impacted by the abuses of power are ignored.
While U.S. citizen’s tax dollars are being used to provide the largest military aid to a country in the East, the toll of human lives and human rights violations are a stain on our foreign policy.
While people in the U.S. are no stranger to hearing about the military support different governments globally, many U.S. citizens do not grasp the gravity of what these weapons mean for people on the ground.
According to Chew (2019), “In 2018, on top of the above, the U.S. sold the Philippine police and military over $63 million worth of arms. It also donated 2,253 machine guns, over 5 million rounds of ammunition, surveillance equipment, and other weapons. Military aid totaled at least $193.5 million last year, not including arms sales, and donated equipment of unreported worth. At least $145.6 million is already pledged for 2019.”
There are continuous ripples of colonization that many of us don’t realize when we think of our own lives, let alone the lives and realities of people in a country we can’t identify. With a brief moment of Japanese occupation, the islands of the Philippines were consistently occupied by the United States government until after the second World War when the U.S. granted them independence. The Tyding-McDuffie Act in 1934 set the Philippines on track for independence also put a cap on immigration to 50 people per year to the mainland. Currently there are more than 2 million Filipinos in the United States.
Assuming office in June 2016, Rodrigo Duterte has followed an unfortunate history of U.S. sponsored dictatorship in the Republic of the Philippines. The true nature and the lengths at which our tax dollars are supporting genocidal and torturous activities are a global problem, with not much public knowledge on what is done with those funds.
Currently, the U.S. government allocates money to the AFP and PNP through Appropriations for the Department of State and Foreign Operations and Related Programs, and the current appropriations for the Philippine military runs at around $184.5 million.
It is difficult to understand the role of the Philippines and other nations in the empire-building of the U.S. because history is often distorted. Proof of that is shown in the ways in which the current situation is portrayed in the media, to leaders across the globe, and to ourselves.
The heart of resistance is in this struggle. Filipino lives are being lost in the struggle for self-determination on their homeland and in the United States.
In response to the request of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, Senator Jeff Merkley noted, “As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I will continue to push for demonstrated improvements in President Duterte’s human rights record and an end to extrajudicial killings;”
Advocates from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast are organizing to bring awareness to these issues. In response to the testimony of members of the Malaya Movement and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler stated, “President Duterte is not in my opinion, a credible leader who should be supported by the United States; his ongoing violence towards his own people, his engagement in formal policy in extrajudicial killings, with some estimates there have been up to 20,000 killings, which should not be something we support.”
These supportive statements are helpful. Yet, we need to see more action on the Congressional side with a public hearing and on the municipality end with resolutions to denounce the human rights violations.
In April, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to condemn the actions taken by President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war and the detention of opposition Senator Leila de Lima. As reported in Rappler, while some government leaders say this is toxic intrusion, there was no comment on the extrajudicial killings and the military support offered by the U.S. government as an intrusion.
It is enough for some to know that more than 16 mayors and vice mayors have been killed since President Duterte took office, and Duterte has personally spoken in press conferences blatantly advocating the killing of Catholic bishops during a period where three Catholic priests were assassinated.
The Trump administration is in allegiance with Duterte’s regime supports corporate and military partnerships that do not allow space of Philippines citizens to have any input into the governing process. Duterte’s regime is using appropriation funds to 1) take land from indigenous communities for oil extraction, 2) use of drones for so called “insurgency” on indigenous farm lands, and 3) environmental degradation of key food supplying regions; among other human rights abuses.
Globally, we need to take a deep dive and assess what corporations and individuals profit from the war and displacement that is happening against civilians in the Philippines.
Consider this, should we allow corporations to get tax benefits from municipalities when they are making a profit off the plight of other people? What are the ways allies in the U.S. and other countries can support their leaders in making rights-based decisions? What would our cities look like without this loophole for war-making companies?
If the U.S. government sends military support to a nation, should we hold our elected officials accountable for what the funds are being used for? We need to stand up for what is right and make persistent, responsive efforts to right any wrongs we have been party too.
