By Elmer A. Ordoñez



We in the US Embassy are here to protect American interests. We expect your officials to protect your own interests.”—US Ambassador Charles Bohlen “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”—Cassius in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

These two quotes came to mind as I read Roland Simbulan’s Forging a Nationalist Foreign Policy: Essays on US Military Presence and the Challenges to Philippine Foreign Policy, published by IBON Foundation.

At the turn of the century, the Filipinos waged the first Asian revolution against western colonialism and then fought a war against US imperialism. President McKinley’s “benevolent assimilation” policy resulted in 600,000 Filipinos dead, and much of the country wasted.

Besides iron fist methods, the US “pacified” the country through public education, with English as medium of teaching, producing generations steeped in American values. Political leaders became surrogates of the
US proconsuls. The local elites—the intelligentsia, landlords, and compradors—were favored wards of the colonial order. Trade benefited US business and the Filipino oligarchs, and not the impoverished mass of the people.

As O.D. Corpuz put it, “rooted deep in the Filipino mind [is] a predisposition, in the resolution of political issues, to appreciate and understand the American point of view.” Many leaders have identified American interests with those of our own.

This is the context of Simbulan’s book of essays that tackle among others the issues of US military bases, its closure in 1991 and its recrudescence in the guise of the Visiting Forces Agreement; violations of the VFA such as the Subic rape and other underreported cases; the US counterinsurgency operations from 1899 to the present; the role of the CIA and other intelligence agencies in these operations including the recruitment of key officials in subverting Philippine sovereignty; the use of funding agencies like Asia Foundation and USAID in these operations; the pollution of the bases areas with toxic wastes; intervention of the World Bank and IMF in economic and educational programs under neoliberal policies; and the detrimental effects of globalization (liberalization, privatization, and deregulation) on labor, domestic industries, and the populace as a whole. The book comprehensively describes and analyzes a US neocolony and the anatomy of imperialist exploitation.

At the same time Simbulan valorizes the role of people’s organizations and nationalist leaders in countering US hegemony as in “The Day the Senate said ‘No’ to Uncle Sam,”—which victory turned out to be pyrrhic since pro-American elements in the Senate in 1999 ratified the lopsided VFA—which has made the entire country an American base, particularly Mindanao.

The dissenting opinion of then Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Reynato Puno in stressing the patent unconstitutionality of the VFA is commended as well as the decision of Makati Judge Benjamin Puzon in finding US marine Daniel Smith guilty of rape. The able prosecution of the case, with Atty. Evalyn Ursua as the victim’s private prosecutor, and the campaign launched by Gabriela and other people’s organizations in keeping the issue alive are acknowledged. But the Philippine government did not protest when the convicted marine was spirited out of the country.

The involvement of Filipino agents in the operations of the CIA has added to our history of traitors and mercenaries like the Macabebe precursors of the Philippine Scouts (US Army), and the Makapilis in the service of the Kempeitai. Simbulan also cited American betrayal of General Macario Sakay and his officers who were induced to apply for amnesty only to be tried summarily and executed.

Filipino collaboration with the enemy began when ilustrado members of the Malolos Congress crossed over to the American lines when hostilities started. In fact some ilustrados started working in occupied Manila while they commuted to Malolos to participate in Congress deliberations. A few joined the Philippine Commission, which passed the Bandolerismo Act, declaring freedom fighters as bandits, prohibiting the display of the Filipino flag, and banning so-called seditious plays.

The Philippine Assembly of 1907 was composed mostly of Nacionalistas who were for immediate and absolute independence but cooptation never ceased. The campaign for independence was marked by elite compromise and surrender of sovereignty with the inclusion of US bases provisions in the 1935 Constitution that became a basis for later charters.

The UP centennial chair holder and former faculty regent has put to good use his scholarship and rich experience in the nationalist struggle in producing well-documented essays. Included are complementary pieces on Andres Bonifacio, the soul of the 1896 revolution, and Daniel Boone Schirmer, author of a book on the Anti-Imperialist League and a true American friend of the Filipino people.

While reactionary elements would amend the 1986 charter to eliminate its nationalist and economic provisions and open the country to untrammeled foreign exploitation of its resources, this book should serve as a primer and reference book for those who love their country and would like to effect genuine social change.

Let us heed Simbulan’s call for people’s participation in abrogating the VFA and in forging a nationalist foreign policy.

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