ANGELES CITY, Pampanga -- Hundreds of farmers and other people led by the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Gitnang Luson (BAYAN-GL) held on 19 October 2006 a rally at the gate of the Clark Special Economic Zone here to protest the on-going US war games.

In a statement, Roman Polintan, BAYAN-GL Chairperson said the rally manifests their "continuing opposition to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the escalating US armed intervention in the Philippines."

"The US troops are here for one thing: wage war against the Filipino people and use the mercenary AFP to kill and maim the poor peasants and workers who are fighting for their rights," AMGL Chairperson Joseph Canlas added.

Talon Vision

The 15-day exercises, dubbed Talon Vision and Amphibious Landing Exercises (Phiblex) officially started last October 16 with joint US and Philippine Navy operations in the village of San Juan in San Antonio, Zambales.

The ground, air and sea maneuvers will be held from Oct. 16 to 31 at various sites including Clark Field in Pampanga, Crow Valley in Tarlac, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija and Ternate, Cavite involving some ome 5,700 US servicemen and 13,000 Filipino troops.

The war games included live-fire exercises, amphibious landings and ship interdictions and focus on routine drills to enhance both forces’ capabilities to operate together according to reports compiled by GLNS.

Coincidence?

Polintan lamented that the war games are being held at the height of political repression and extrajudicial killings attributed to the government security forces.

According to Karapatan-GL, there are already some 110 victims of political killings in the region since GMA rose to power in 2001, which included Aglipayan Bishop Alberto Ramento. Added to this are the 21 victims of massacres, 25 victims of frustrated killings and 58 victims of involuntary disappearances, the human rights group said further.

“We renew our call for abrogation of the VFA. The US uses (the) war games to train our soldiers to kill civilians in the guise of combating terrorism,” Polintan added further.

Peasant Week

The rally is part of this year's Peasant Week commemoration which included a caravan from Central Luzon to Mendiola dubbed as “Lakbayan ng Anakpawis Laban sa Kahirapan, Kagutuman, Pamamaslang at Charter Change ng Rehimeng US-Arroyo.”

The anti-VFA rally was preceded by an ecumenical mass at 7:00 AM officiated by Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of the Archdiocese of San Fernando and priests and pastors of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), and other churches.

The rallyists dispersed peacefully and proceeded to the Department of Agrarian Reform in Quezon City to meet delegations from other regions, notably Metro Manila and Southern Tagalog.