Suppose that a country, much stronger than the United States, wanted to establish military bases on U.S. soil. And suppose that over time that country sent large quantities of military aid to Washington to help authoritarian leaders suppress a popular movement that sought to oust those alien bases. Furthermore, suppose that country occasionally used those bases to carry out military operations against countries neighboring the United States. How would Americans feel?
Such questions are now being directed toward Americans by Filipino nationalists and church leaders who strongly resent the U.S. bases in their Pacific archipelago.
For 80 years the United States has maintained extensive military installations in the Philippines. The largest two are Clark and Subic. Clark Air Field, home of the U.S. 13th Air Force, is America's largest overseas air base. Also north of Manila lies the Subic Naval Base, a sprawling naval supply depot and repair facility for the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Pacific. U.S. military strategists argue that these bases are vital to ensure that shipping lanes in the western Pacific remain open to the United States and its friends.
On June 1, U.S. and Filipino negotiators signed another five-year agreement giving the United States "unhampered use" of the bases in exchange for President Reagan's promise of his "best efforts" to send $900 million aid to the Philippine government of Ferdinand Marcos. Nearly half that amount, $425 million, will be military aid.
The social impact of the bases on surrounding Filipino communities is what is most disturbing to a visitor to those "camp towns." The conspicuous wealth of the bases—replete with military-operated department stores, golf courses, and churches—sits adjacent to Filipino communities of dire poverty. This juxtaposition has become a recipe for dehumanization.
Poor villagers raid the American garbage dump only to be chased or arrested by U.S. Marines. (One recent victim died when he fell into a ravine during such a chase.) Drug addiction, not a serious problem in broader Philippine society, has become common in the base towns.
Walking the streets of Olongapo, the town adjacent to Subic Naval Base, one encounters bar after disco after massage parlor after casino after night club. There is seemingly nothing that is not bought and sold in Olongapo.
An estimated 12,000 young Filipina women have been drawn into prostitution in Olongapo alone. These "hospitality girls" are required to get medical checks for venereal disease every two weeks. The V.D. clinic is financed by the U.S. Navy.
Beyond the immediate social debauchery, Filipino nationalists point to the dangerous way the bases serve as a "magnet for attack" from countries hostile not to the Philippines, but to the United States. Many of the ships and aircraft that use the bases are nuclear-capable. In addition to the nuclear weapons believed to be stored in the bases, their strategic communications facilities make them vital to any possible first-strike capability the U.S. may mount against the Soviet Union.
Hence it is no surprise that a recent Brookings Institute study revealed that Soviet missiles are aimed at those bases in the Philippines. Former Senator Jose Diokno asserts, "Instead of the Philippines simply running the risk, like any other noninvolved nation, of nuclear fallout carried by a wind current, it would become the target of direct attack." For this reason, growing numbers of Filipinos are sounding the call for a nuclear-free Pacific. A wide range of religious leaders, politicians, farmers, workers, and academics have come together in recent months in an Anti-Bases Coalition (ABC) which promises to campaign against the bases in national and international forums.
Such activity is not viewed kindly by the regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos has been quite successful in using the bases to secure large-scale American military aid to bolster his own authoritarian rule. In the U.S. Congress, while many members are critical of Marcos' human rights record, very few will take any action, such as an aid cut-off, which might jeopardize the American bases.
Significant dissent within the Philippines continues to be squelched. One popular political oppositionist, Aquilino ("Nene") Pimentel, has been jailed because his Philippine Democratic Party (PDP) was mounting in strength. The PDP has called for a removal of the U.S. bases, as have all of the political opposition parties.
As legal oppositionists are jailed or harassed, much dissent is pushed underground. Hence there has been a steady growth of the guerrilla New People's Army, which in turn has brought escalated government military action. With the rising tide of violence in the Philippines, Manila's Catholic archbishop, Jaime Cardinal Sin, has appealed for a halt to all outside military aid, which is only being used "to slaughter Filipinos."
Americans concerned about the arms race rightfully warn of the future destruction that would ensue from a nuclear confrontation. Many Filipinos remind us that even if those nuclear weapons are never used, the ends to which we go to maintain a military posture around the world even now contribute to the slaughter of their people.
Earl Martin worked with the Mennonite Central Committee in the Phillippines from 1979 to 1982.
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