MANILA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- A leftist political coalition said Saturday that it will question the presence of "overstaying US troops" in the southern Philippines before the Southeast Asian country's Supreme Court later this month.
Bayan, or New Patriotic Alliance, said it filed last year a petition questioning the constitutionality of the Philippines-United States Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and that the high court has set oral arguments about it for Sept. 19.
The U.S. troops have been in the Philippines' southern region of Mindanao for six years, rather than a "temporary" stay of six months in accordance with the Philippine Senate's deliberations on the agreement in 1999, Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said in a statement. Bayan is a Philippine political coalition of more than 1,000 grassroots and progressive organizations.
"The problem with the VFA is that it does not define in clear and uncertain terms the scope, duration of stay and the extent of the engagement of US troops. In some ways, it is worse than the previous US bases agreement because of its vagueness. For all intents and purposes, an unlimited number of US troops can stay here for an unlimited period of time, even if there are no joint military exercises," Reyes said.
"If that isn't virtual basing, then what is?" he added.
On the same day, leading Philippine newspaper Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the so-called "visiting forces" seem to have become a permanent deployment in the southern Philippines.
Edgar Araojo, a political science professor at the Western Mindanao State University, told the newspaper that he had found several U.S. military facilities established by the Americans in Zamboanga, Mindanao.
Among them, he said, were the headquarters of the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, an air asset facility in a local airport, and a docking area inside the Philippine Naval Forces Western Mindanao Command.
The United States in 1992 ended nearly a century of military presence in its former colony when it left the Subic naval base after the Philippine Senate refused to renew the two countries' military bases treaty.
In 2002, under the panoply of the Visiting Forces Agreement, U.S. special forces numbering about 200 men arrived in Zamboanga with a mission of training Philippine soldiers in fighting terrorists on nearby Basilan island.
Over the years, their numbers have swellen to 600, with some units focusing on what officials described as "humanitarian missions," the newspaper reported.
The Philippine Constitution says that with the end in 1991 of the Philippine-United States bases agreement, no more foreign bases, troops, or facilities shall be allowed in the Philippines, except under a treaty concurred in by the Senate and, when the Congress so requires, ratified by a majority of the people.
In Saturday's statement, Bayan also said "informal basing structures" were being created under the Philippines-Unites States Mutual Logistics Agreement (MLSA), a complimentary arrangement with the VFA. The MLSA allows US troops' use of Philippine facilities for whatever purposes they have during their stay there.
"The VFA and the MLSA are twin agreements which re-established US military presence in the country after the US bases treaty rejection of 1991. It's as if the Americans never left Subic and Clark. These agreements violate the Philippine constitution and the nation's sovereignty," Reyes said. Clark Air Base is a former United States Air Force base on Luzon Island in the Philippines, located 40 miles northwest of the country's capital of Metro Manila.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro on Saturday justified the continued stay of American forces in Mindanao, saying the presence of the U.S. troops in the Philippines was consistent with the provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Mutual Defense Treaty that provide for annual mutual training exercises as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster response, Philippine Daily Inquirer said in another report posted on its website.
Teodoro said that U.S. forces were prohibited from taking part in combat or even leaving their camps without clearance from the Philippine area commander or from the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Asked about limitations on the U.S. military presence and engagement, Teodoro said that U.S. military presence was allowed in the entire country, not just in Mindanao.
"What is forbidden is participation by the Americans in combat operations, but in the rest -- military assistance, disaster assistance -- they can participate," Teodoro said.
