MANILA, Philippines — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for his allegedly straightforward statement that the Philippines is America’s forward military base.
The CPP said Trump’s view of the Philippines as the “most prime piece of real estate from the military standpoint” did not only show the U.S. leader’s “imperialist, rascist contempt of the Filipino people” but also “pulls the Philippines into the vortex of its wars in Asia.”
“Trump’s announcement after the Asean (Summit)…shows the U.S. government’s priorities in its designs on the Philippines. Aside from the already frequent military exercises, increased military equipment and training for the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), Trump also announced that he will be giving $2 million to support Duterte’s criminal drug war,” the CPP said in a statement it issued Thursday.
While his statement about the Philippines isn’t something new, Trump expressed it frankly and officially, according to the CPP.
“U.S. imperialism has already manifested this view of the Philippines as its forward military base since the turn of the 20th century when it waged a bloody colonial war on the Philippines to use it against China. Until the 1950’s to the 1970’s, it has consistently used the Philippines as launching pad for its wars of aggression on Korea and Vietnam,” the party said.
“But this time, the president put it so bluntly, in an official White House statement to boot, raising the level of pressure the U.S. will exercise to control this area in its Asian positioning,” it added.
The CPP said that with U.S. imperialism’s “muscle-flexing” on the issue of the South China Sea and the Malacca Strait, Trump finds that “it’s very important that we get along with the Philippines, and we do.”
“He (Trump) has welcome allies in an AFP that slaughters its own people in defense of U.S. imperialist interests, and a president singing the same war-mongering tune against the DPRK (North Korea)—in fact, even singing a love ditty as the master orders it to, true to its puppet character,” the party said.
