Group bucks plan to build US mini naval base
October 3, 2013 | 1:34pm
MANILA, Philippines - Fisherfolk group Pamalakaya on Thursday scored the plan of the US government and the Aquino administration to transform Oyster Bay in Palawan into a mini-naval base for visiting American forces.
Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France said the plan to convert the mangrove rich cove southwest of Manila will result to the destruction of marine environment in the area.
Commodore Joseph Rostum Peña, commander of the Philippines’ western navy, confirmed that the plan would be a mini-Subic Naval Base, where a future port would extend the reach of the navy’s two frigates, both former US Coast Guard cutters, over the disputed Spratly Islands, which are about 160 kilometers from the disputed West Philippine Sea.
France said the conversion plan was revived under the administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III in response to Washington's gesture to donation of frigates in 2011 and 2012.
"We will contest this grand mockery of Philippine sovereignty in the parliament of the streets, in any appropriate court or forum and in the court of public opinion," he added.
France said the construction of mini-naval base in Oyster Bay for US military pivot and activities in Asia and the Pacific is grossly unconstitutional and would put extreme danger to the lives and livelihood of the people and their environment.
He claimed that the goal of the mini-naval base in Oyster Bay is not only to check China and the long-running tension in West Philippine Sea but also to maintain the US military supremacy all over the region.
The group also called on Philippine senators to be extra vigilant on the plan to build a mini-Subic Naval Base in Oyster Bay, hinting that the construction is in preparation for the signing of framework agreement between the US and executive officials of the Aquino administration regarding the “increased rotational presence†of American forces.
This would then allow the US access to local military bases and even construction of new US military facilities.
"The Philippine Senate --the ratifying authority of any Philippine-US military agreement in the country-- is completely ignored here," the group said.
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