Is the Philippine Government Bombing its Own People for Doll

The Guardian (UK)

August 15, 2003

Stark message of the mutiny: Is the Philippine
government bombing its own people for dollars?

By Naomi Klein

What does it take to become a major news story in the
summer of Arnie and Kobe, Ben and Jen? A lot, as a group
of young Philippine soldiers discovered recently. On
July 27, 300 soldiers rigged a giant Manila shopping
mall with C-4 explosives, accused one of Washington’s
closest allies of blowing up its own buildings to
attract US military dollars - and still barely managed
to make the international news.

That’s our loss, because in the wake of the Marriott
bombing in Jakarta and newly leaked intelligence reports
claiming that the September 11 attacks were hatched in
Manila, it looks like south-east Asia is about to become
the next major front in Washington’s war on terror.
The Philippines and Indonesia may have missed the cut
for the axis of evil, but the two countries do offer
Washington something Iran and North Korea do not: US-
friendly governments willing to help the Pentagon secure
an easy win. Both the Philippine president Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo and the Indonesian president Megawati
Sukarnoputri have embraced Bush’s crusade as the perfect
cover for their brutal cleansing of separatist movements
from resource-rich regions - Mindanao in the
Philippines, Aceh in Indonesia.

The Philippine government has already reaped a bonanza
from its status as Washington’s favoured terror-fighting
ally in Asia. US military aid increased from $2m
(£1.25m) in 2001 to $80m a year, while US soldiers and
special forces flooded into Mindanao to launch
offensives against Abu Sayyaf, a group the White House
claims has links to al-Qaida.

This went on until mid-February, when the US-Philippine
alliance suffered a major setback. On the eve of a new
joint military operation involving more than 3,000 US
soldiers, a Pentagon spokesperson told reporters that US
troops in the Philippines would "actively participate"
in combat - a deviation from the Arroyo administration’s
line that the soldiers were only conducting training.
The difference is significant. A clause in the
Philippine constitution bans combat by foreign soldiers
on its soil, a safeguard against a return of the
sprawling US military bases that were banished from the
Philippines in 1992. The public outcry against the
February announcement was so strong that the entire
operation had to be called off and future joint
operations suspended.

In the six months since, while all eyes have been on
Iraq, there has been a leap in terrorist bombings in
Mindanao. Now, post-mutiny, the question is: who was
responsible for these? The government blames the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The mutinous soldiers
point the finger back at the military and the
government, saying that by inflating the terrorist
threat, they are rebuilding the justification for more
US aid and intervention.
The soldiers claim that:

• Senior military officials, in collusion with the
Arroyo regime, carried out last March’s bombing of the
airport in the southern city of Davao, as well as
several other attacks. Thirty-eight people were killed
in the bombings. The leader of the mutiny, Lieutenant
Antonio Trillanes, claims to have "hundreds" of
witnesses who can testify to the plot.

• The army has fuelled terrorism in Mindanao by selling
weapons and ammunition to the very rebel forces the
young soldiers were sent to fight.

• Members of the military and police helped prisoners
convicted of terrorist crimes escape from jail. The
"final validation", according to Trillanes, was Fathur
Rohman al-Ghozi’s July 14 escape from a heavily guarded
Manila prison. Al-Ghozi is a notorious bomb-maker with
Jemaah Islamiah, which was linked to both the Bali and
Marriott attacks.

• The government was on the verge of staging a new
string of bombings to justify declaring martial law.
Arroyo denies the allegations and accuses the soldiers
of being pawns of her unscrupulous political opponents.
The mutineers insist they were not trying to seize power
but only wanted to expose a top-level conspiracy. When
Arroyo promised to launch a full investigation into the
allegations, the mutiny ended without violence.
Though the soldiers’ tactics were widely condemned in
the Philippines, there was widespread recognition in the
press, and even inside the military, that their claims
were "valid and legitimate", as retired navy captain
Danilo Vizmanos put it to me.

Local newspaper reports described the army’s selling of
weapons to rebels as "an open secret" and "common
knowledge". General Narciso Abaya, the chief of staff of
the Philippine armed forces, conceded that there is
"graft and corruption at all levels". And the police
have admitted that al-Ghozi couldn’t have escaped from
his cell without help from someone on the inside. Most
significant, Victor Corpus, the chief of army
intelligence, resigned, though he denies any role in the
Davao bombings.

Besides, the soldiers were not the first to accuse the
Philippine government of bombing its own people. Days
before the mutiny, a coalition of church groups, lawyers
and NGOs launched a "fact-finding mission" to
investigate persistent rumours that the state was
involved in the Davao explosions. It is also
investigating the possible involvement of US
intelligence agencies.

These suspicions stem from a bizarre incident on May 16
2002, in Davao. Michael Meiring, a US citizen, allegedly
detonated explosives in his hotel room, injuring himself
badly. While recovering in hospital, Meiring was whisked
away by two men - who witnesses say identified
themselves as FBI agents - and flown to the US. Local
officials have demanded that Meiring return to face
charges, to little effect. BusinessWorld, a leading
Philippine newspaper, has published articles openly
accusing Meiring of being a CIA agent involved in covert
operations "to justify the stationing of American troops
and bases in Mindanao".

Yet the Meiring affair has never been reported in the US
press. And the mutinous soldiers’ incredible allegations
were no more than a one-day story. Maybe it just seemed
too outlandish: an out-of-control government fanning the
flames of terrorism to pump up its military budget, hold
on to power and violate civil liberties. Why would
Americans be interested in something like that?
• A version of this article appears in the Nation. Naomi
Klein’s most recent book is Fences and Windows

www.nologo.org

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