The Americans might have abandoned their bases many years ago and left the country at the time, but secret US cables showed that they continued to have “active and direct” involvement in military operations in Mindanao under the Arroyo administration, according to a militant lawmaker.
Messages from the US Embassy in Manila sent between 2005 and 2006 to Washington as revealed by the Internet whistle-blower WikiLeaks indicated that American soldiers provided information and participated in the planning of top-secret operations against the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group in the hills of southern Mindanao; that American ships helped the Philippine Navy cordon off the Jolo Sea; that two Federal Bureau of Intelligence agents were embedded in Philippine antiterrorist activities, and that top defense officials in the Arroyo administration pushed for more American participation in combat operations.
As if they never left
“The US cables exposed by WikiLeaks prove what we have suspected all along, that US troops are still permanently based here and are actively and directly involved in military operations against Filipinos in Mindanao. It’s as if they never left in September 1991,” said Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casiño in a phone interview.
Casino said that the public had suspected that the US continued to interfere in the Philippines’ handling of internal security after news that an unarmed Filipino civilian, Buyong-buyong Isnijal, was shot by an American soldier, Reggie Lane, in Jolo in 2002 and photos of US soldiers in Humvees leading a convoy of Filipino soldiers were released a few years ago.
Casiño said that with the US troops’ direct participation in military operations in Mindanao, the Aquino administration should consider the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement as it only served as an extension of the Philippine-US Bases Treaty which the Philippine Senate junked 20 years ago.
In a US cable titled “Subject: AFP Anti-Terrorism Operations Advance on Jolo” (US cable code 06Manila3401), Charge d’Affaires Paul W. Jones reported to Washington that “US forces embedded at battalion-level headquarters are providing advice, assistance and intelligence support to AFP maneuver elements, while US and Philippine naval forces are closely integrated in a maritime cordon around the island” as the Philippine military hunted JI operatives (Dulmatin and Umar Patek ) and ASG leaders (Khadaffy Janjalani) in Mt. Tumatangis in western Jolo.
‘With US support’
Jones noted that the Philippine Navy “with US support, is maintaining an active security presence and tight maritime cordon around the island.”
He said then AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon arrived in Jolo “to get a first-hand report of operations, and specifically asked to meet with JSOTF-P while he is there.”
“US forces remain closely engaged in support of the operations. The USNS Joint Venture and Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) MK-V’s and Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) are fully integrated into the Philippine Navy task force and have provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to the 87-plus maritime interdictions around the island that have taken place since Aug. 1. JSOTF-P elements are present at the battalion headquarters of all the maneuver elements, as well as at the headquarters of the combat command for Jolo, Task Force Comet and Southcom (the Philippine Army’s Southern Command) headquarters,” said Jones.