Press Release
November 26, 2007

PIMENTEL DOUBTS REPORT ON ALLEGED
EXISTENCE OF US MILITARY BASES IN RP

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said he does not think that the United States has set up military bases in the Philippines since the US can maintain its military presence in the country through the Visiting Forces Agreement.

Pimentel made the statement in the face of a report by the Bangkok-based international think tank, Focus on the Global South, that the US is maintaining "secret bases" in the country, pointing to Subic, in Zambales, Clark in Pampanga, Mactan in Cebu and General Santos City in South Cotabato as their possible locations.

"As far as I know, there are no US military - secret or open - in the Philippines. The US does not need bases here. With the Visiting Forces Agreement, they have enough presence in the country for their security needs," he said.

Focus on Global South, a policy research organization based at the Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, said the alleged bases in the country are listed in the US Overseas Basing Commission as "cooperative security locations" (CSL).

In asserting that the US does not need military bases in the country, Pimentel said the US and the Philippines forged the VFA as a substitute to the American military bases which were dismantled in 1992 after the Philippine Senate rejected a treaty that would extend the Military Bases Agreement for 10 years more.

Pimentel, one of the 12 senators who voted against the retention of the US bases, said the US made its military presence felt through the deployment of American troops in various parts of the country for a limited period to take part in the military exercises in tandem with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The US cannot install and maintain permanent military installations and deploy troops in the country on a permanent basis unless there is a treaty ratified by the Philippine Senate through a two-thirds votes of all its members.

Pimentel said he will support a call by some progressive groups for a Senate inquiry into the alleged revival of the US bases if only to settle the issue once and for all.

The Focus on the Global South claimed that the primary target of the US bases is China and not the terrorists groups.

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