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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">“Harris Imperialist!”: Filipino movements criticize US Vice President’s visit</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Anish R M - November 23, 2022<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><img src="cid:ii_lau2c12c1" alt="image.png" width="392" height="220"><br><p><font size="1">Hundreds
participated in a large protest demonstration in Manila against the
visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris on November 21, 2022. (Photo:
Altermidya/Facebook)
</font></p><div>
<p><span>United States Vice-President Kamala Harris ended her three-day
visit to the Philippines on Tuesday, November 22, amid protests by peace
advocates and social movements in the country. Harris is the first
top-level US official to visit the Philippines after President Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos Jr took office in June earlier this year.</span></p>
<p><span>While President Marcos arranged for a warm reception for
Harris, social movements received her visit with a massive demonstration
to protest the US’ role in the worsening human rights situation in the
Philippines.</span></p>
<p><span>On Monday, November 21, thousands participated in a massive
rally in Manila, organized by several groups under the left-wing
progressive coalition Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).</span></p>
<p><span>Protesters shouted slogans saying that Harris was “Not Welcome”
and carried placards and posters against US imperialist policy and its
military presence in the country. Protesters were also seen holding a
poster with a caricature of Harris and Marcos Jr which read “Harris
Imperialist.”</span></p>
<p><span>According to reports, a massive battalion of the Philippines
National Police blocked the planned march route and even chased
protesters when they tried to take a detour. Despite the heavy policing,
social leaders and progressives managed to speak at the rally decrying
the visit and the impact it will have on the region as a whole.</span></p>
<p><span>“Kamala Harris’ visit to the Philippines will bring harm to the
country,” said Raymond Palatino, a leader of Bayan and its constituent
youth movement Kabataan. “Because her agenda here is not for peace, not
for the Philippines’ development, but for additional military bases of
the US; additional aid for the military, funds that will be used for
corruption, funds for war equipment that will be used against
Filipinos.”</span></p>
<img src="https://peoplesdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/pic-by-altm-02-768x576-1-300x225.jpeg" alt="Kamala Harris visit Philippines" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="300" height="225">Police block protesters from continuing their planned march in Manila. (Photo: Altermidya)
<h3><b>Millions for militarization</b></h3>
<p><span>Just ahead of the visit, the US announced major plans to infuse
military aid into the Philippines and further expand US military
presence in the region. In October, the US ambassador in Manila
announced USD 100 million in foreign military financing for the
Philippines “to use as it wishes.”</span></p>
<p><span>Rights groups and grassroots activists have raised concerns
that such financing could go into continuing the counter-insurgency
programs in the country.</span></p>
<p><span>“The US cannot evade accountability for the worsening human
rights situation in the Philippines,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary
general of rights group Karapatan, in a statement released on Monday.</span></p>
<p><span>“It already has blood on its hands for having pushed and funded
successive regimes in the Philippines, including the Duterte
administration, to adopt increasingly vicious counter-insurgency
policies resulting in stepped-up attacks against people’s rights and
civil liberties.”</span></p>
<p><span>The financing is also being viewed as a reward to the
Philippines for scrapping a Rodrigo Duterte-era USD 227 million deal for
military helicopters from Russia, and instead opting for Chinook
helicopters from the US.</span></p>
<p><span>Despite US media speculation that the closer ties between the
US and Philippines under Marcos Jr is an apparent break from his
predecessor’s policies, data shows that the US had provided massive
military financing even under Duterte’s regime.</span></p>
<img src="https://peoplesdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/316525132_2443066142509499_2749397540761343393_n-300x169.jpeg" alt="Kamala Harris visit Philippines" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="300" height="169">(Photo: Altermidya)
<p><span>As per official data, the Philippines remained the largest
recipient of US military aid and financing between 2015 and 2022. It
received funds, arms, equipment and training to the tune of USD 1.14
billion, including foreign military financing of USD 475 million.</span></p>
<p><span>Furthermore, just a week ahead of Harris’ visit, the
Philippine’s chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
Bartolome Bacarro confirmed that the US wanted to construct five new
military facilities in northern Philippines.</span></p>
<p><span>These facilities are to be constructed in addition to the five
that already exist under a controversial 2014 military pact, the Enhance
Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), tying the AFP with the US.</span></p>
<p><span>Harris’ visit included agreements about this plan with senior military officials of the Marcos administration. According to </span><i><span>Rappler</span></i><span>,
the US has already agreed to allocate more funds on top of the earlier
agreed upon allocation of USD 82 million for EDCA expansion. Sites for
the development of new facilities have already been identified.</span></p>
<h3><b>“Visit to contend with China”</b></h3>
<p><span>Activists also raised alarm over the anti-China agenda which
they claimed is at the heart of the visit, especially the much
criticized visit to Palawan province.</span></p>
<p><span>The island province is the Filipino territory closest to the
disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, parts of which the
Philippines claims as part of its territory.</span></p>
<p><span>Liza Maza, former legislator and a member of women’s group
Gabriela, said that the US conflict with China was at the heart of
Harris’ visit. Speaking to the protesters in Manila, Maza argued that
“Harris visited the Philippines to contend with China.”</span></p>
<p><span>“The United States makes the Philippines enter conflict against
China. That’s their projection. That’s why we, being peace-loving
people, should reject this US agenda.”</span></p>
<p><span>The activists’ concerns were vindicated when Harris made
statements targeting China over the multi-national dispute in the South
China Sea from a coast guard boat. She also claimed that the US “stands
with the Philippines” against what she characterized as “intimidation
and coercion in the South China Sea.”</span></p>
<p><span>Harris’ visit to the island was the first of its kind ever by a top US official. </span></p>
<img src="https://peoplesdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/316527046_2443065975842849_2800868603363377130_n-300x225.jpeg" alt="Kamala Harris visit Philippines" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="300" height="225">(Photo: Altermidya/Facebook)
<p><span>Movements also called out the Marcos Jr administration for
allowing the US to use the Philippines in its acts of aggression. In a
statement, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle-Philippines
called out Marcos Jr for continuing in the footsteps of his late father
and former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in pursuing a pro-US policy.</span></p>
<p><span>“The US imperialist government is no friend of ours,” the
statement said. “With its long history of colonization, waging wars of
aggression and intervention, and engineering of policies that worsened
the economic, political, and cultural lives of the Filipino people – it
has never been an ally nor a partner.”</span></p>
<p><span>This was echoed by Kilusang Mayo Uno, which said that the talks
held between Harris and Marcos Jr “aims to strengthen the so-called
US-Philippine alliance; but the Filipino people know that this just
means further puppetry to the US neoliberal policies, and intensified
curtailment of our rights.”</span></p>
<h3><b>Hollow platitudes for rights defenders</b></h3>
<p><span>Faced with such protests from movements, Harris’ itinerary
included a meeting organized on the sidelines of her visit with a
carefully selected group of social workers and issue-based advocates.
During the meeting, she extended solidarity to human rights defenders
and advocates of free speech and women’s rights in the Philippines,
telling right defenders that they are “not alone.”</span></p>
<p><span>However, she failed to mention any measures the US might take
in realizing this solidarity. She even failed to mention the recent
incidents of violence against rights defenders and journalists in the
country, including the high-profile case of independent radio journalist
Percy Lapid.</span></p>
<p><span>Activists were prompt to call out the hypocrisy in her
statements. “By these actions, the US continues its double-speak on
human rights, while pursuing its geo-political and military interests in
the Philippines and in the Asia Pacific region,” said Palabay, while
pointing out Harris’ own history of promoting militaristic and
anti-human rights agenda.</span></p>
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