The Second Front

Al Jazeera has a bunch of great pics along with this article:

The 'War on Terror' rages in the Philippines
In 2002, the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines; nine years later, the campaign there continues.

As violence between insurgent groups, local governments and American troops still rages in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States continues to sponsor local military missions to combat "terrorism" in dozens of countries encompassing every major region of the world. The so-called Global War on Terror, now entering its tenth year, has become a military behemoth that accounts for the majority of US defense spending.

In the Philippines, a staunch US ally that receives most of its military funding and training from the US, the Pentagon launched Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines - part of a military effort linked with the main Operation Enduring Freedom mission in Afghanistan - to fight "terrorist insurgent groups" in 2002.

Although the military describes its mission in the Philippines as a success, nearly ten years later, the results are devastating. All-out wars against the Muslim separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the communist guerilla group New People's Army (NPA) and the Islamist insurgent group Abu Sayyaf have left a trail of destruction across rural areas of the country.

While the American military argues that its presence has been a stabilising factor in the southern Philippines, wars between the government and insurgents continue with killings on a near-daily basis. And although the Philippine constitution prohibits foreign troops from participating in combat operations in the country, joint operations in war zones are often labeled military "exercises" to avoid controversy.

Nearly ten years after the initial troop deployment some 600 American special operations forces remain in the country, and will likely stay there for the foreseeable future.
-Al Jazeera

Philippine Air Force sucks

This isn't really news, but the Philippine Air Force is totally incapable of defending the Philippines.

MANILA - More than three-quarters of Philippine military aircraft are not fit to fly - hampering the country's ability to protect its airspace and territorial waters, the air force said on Sept. 10.

Air force spokesman Miguel Ernesto Okol said the military fleet was in dire straits, backing up a 2010 government audit that found only 91 of the 393 aircraft were "full mission capable".
-Defense News

The Philippine Air Force is composed of several-decades-old hand-me-downs from Uncle Sam (think Korean War-era hunks of junk). In general, the Philippine military is only capable of counter-insurgency (think torturing peasants).
The country has historically just relied on its neo-colonial relationship with the United States for defense, and that has been sufficient. However, now that tensions in the South China Sea have the government talking diplomacy with China, the hawks feel compelled to point out the historically obvious: the Philippines can't fight a war against an external enemy by themselves.
Duh. That's why Manila is talking peace, and that's exactly why Washington DC is talking war. If the Philippines (and other ASEAN nations) really do negotiate treaties with China, there would be less need for half-a-century-old hand-me-downs, and less need for a declining empire as a bodyguard.

New Zealand backs Philippines on Spratly issue

About that $30 billion in US military aid to the Philippines...
Money can apparently buy you love.
After 'dialoging' with their counterparts in Manila earlier this month, the New Zealand Department of Defense has publicly backed their new BFFs on the issue of how to deal with territorial disputes in the Spratly region.
On Friday, the New Zealand Department of Defense has said that it is necessary for claimant countries to abide by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and adhere to the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

The New Zealand government also agreed during a recent meeting with Filipino defense officials that the Spratly claimants—the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan—should abide by the code of conduct they had signed in 2002 about settling territorial dispute peacefully, the defense department said in a statement.

The UNCLOS sets a country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ)—an area where it has a right to explore for and exploit natural resources while allowing freedom of navigation and overflight to others— at 200 nautical miles from its coastline.

The Philippines has tussled with China over certain isles and reefs in the vicinity of the Spratly chain that fall within what Manila considers its EEZ as well as Beijing’s “nine-dash-line” claims over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
-Inquirer

2 Americans abducted in the Southern Philippines

Here we go again.

Gunmen abducted two American citizens along with their Filipino relative from a southern Philippines island Tuesday, police said.

At about 3 a.m., 14 armed men snatched Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 43, her son, Kevin, 14, and Lunsmann's Filipino nephew, Romnick Jakaria, 19, said Nonito Asbai, the area's police chief inspector.

Police and the Filipino navy have launched search operations, Asbai said.

The victims were forced at gunpoint to board awaiting boats, which then sped toward the troubled island of Basilan, a stronghold of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf.

No one, however, has claimed responsibility for the abduction or asked for a ransom.
-CNN

This was the type of stuff that filled the news during the early heyday of George Dumbya's war by terror.
Shortly after Bill Clinton was impeached but not removed from office in 1999, former action-movie-star-turned-Philippine-President Joseph Estrada became embroiled in his own scandal when allegations surfaced that he had consolidated most organized crime in the country under him. Elected in 1998 after successfully helping to lead a campaign in the Senate that evicted the US military from their Philippine bases, Estrada survived an impeachment trial in late 2000, but not a military coup in early 2001. Just a few weeks after the US Supreme Court selected George W. Bush to be President, the Philippine Supreme Court selected Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Estrada's successor. Like Bush, Macapagal-Arroyo's father was a former President known for being a lapdog for the bankstas.
Macapagal-Arroyo, a Harvard alum, was an eager ally during the early days of Dumbya's infinite war, and allowed US troops to return to the Philippines, largely because of a conveniently-timed Abu Sayyaf kidnapping campaign. The Philippines was dubbed "the second front" in the war on terror.

The Abu Sayyaf was started by people who learned their trade as Mujaheddin in Afghanistan (i.e. they were trained by the CIA). They serve as a convenient excuse for US military operations in the Southern Philippines, a historically muslim region that was not conquered by either the Spanish or the United States. Hence, it is a resource-rich region that multinationals are not exploiting sufficiently. US-puppet regimes in Manila have re-settled the area with former Maoist insurgents from the Northern Philippines who had signed peace-deals with the government. Not surprisingly, it is known for lawlessness and violent strife. However, none of the legitimate muslim separatist movements in the region ally themselves with the Abu Sayyaf, obviously because they know that they are connected to the CIA. The Abu Sayyaf, even when they are holding hostages, are able to roam about in their territory freely despite intense military crackdowns that are led/backed up by the latest and greatest US intelligence technology.
It shouldn't be any surprise that, amidst the ever-more-apparent reality of peak oil and worldwide economic collapse, the Abu Sayyaf has once again kinapped Americans. The bankstas dredged up the Osama bimn Laden boogeyman a few months ago, and it only makes sense that the Abu Sayyaf would not be far behind as well.
This time around though, there is the added issue of increased tensions with China over the Spratly issue. Obviously, the CIA realized that Filipinos weren't overly concerned about the Spratlys, and perhaps needed a better excuse to send more military "advisors" to the area.
Philippine military officials were quick to implicate the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as the perpetrators, but even CNN knows better.
Needless to say, this latest development warrants our attention.

Filipinos afraid to take a stance in Spratly row?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the Philippine Left's relative silence over the issue of Chinese violation of Philippine sovereign territory in the Philippines. So-called "Nationalists" are wary of any excuse to increase US military involvement in the region, and rightfully so.
However, just because you don't want the US to have an excuse to intervene/occupy doesn't mean that it's okay for another imperial country to steal your resources.
That's what this issue is really about.
Both countries have been stealing Philippine resources for generations. Both countries are promoting civil war in the Philippines, from multiple sides. Neither country has the best interests of the Filipino people in mind.
However, the hardcore Philippine Left is dominated by maoists, who, for obvious reasons, seem to feel that China can do no wrong. In contrast, they will make all kinds of noise to protest whenever the United States steals oil from any other country.
I understand that people are afraid that taking a Nationalist stance on the Spratly issue plays into the hands of the western imperialists, but sitting on your hands while China steals your vital resources is an even worse strategy. China ain't run by Mao. China is runnin with the bankstas...even after getting slapped across the face with a Christine Lagarde appointment as IMF chief.
This is just another example of how blind devotion to ideology leaves you...well, blind.
On the other hand though, a series of protests is being called for today in front of Chinese embassies in the US. The protests are being organized by Fil-Ams that are not exactly nationalists. They will most likely be calling for US assistance/intervention. I don't agree with that either.
It's a complex issue that requires everyone to look at the big picture. The big picture is, China is stealing vital resources from the Philippines, and that ain't right.

Noynoy Aquino

Noynoy's Luisita from Bulatlat on Vimeo.

Arroyo Declares Martial Law in Maguindanao

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has placed Maguindanao under a state of martial rule and authorities quickly arrested the patriarch of a powerful political clan linked to the brutal slayings of 57 people in the southern province.

In a press conference in Manila on Saturday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the martial rule in Maguindanao will allow authorities to arrest without warrants all those implicated in the killings and bring order in the province.
-Mindanao Examiner

“Proclamation No. 1959 is totally uncalled for,” Anakpawis secretary-general Cherry Clemente said, adding that it may be the start of Arroyo’s attempt to cling to power as her term approaches its end in June 2010.
-Bulatlat

Massacre in the Philippines

In case any of you didn't know why CIA and US military involvement was bad for democracy in a region, just look at recent events in the Philippines, where US special forces have been training local troops and private militias in "counter-insurgency" for the past 7 years. In late November, a Mayor in Maguindanao brutally massacred 57 people over an election campaign before it had even officially started.

Electoral violence in an underdeveloped region may not be news, but the brutal nature of the massacre and who the victims were shows the level of perceived impunity with which local politicians feel entitled to in this region, largely because they know that US special forces are "training" in their area. Knowing that muslim insurgents/terrorists/bandits can always be blamed, warlord politicians don't even need to be physically protected by the green berets and "civilian contractors", because they know that as long as they're delivering votes to the puppet regime in Manila, the wheels of justice will be greased in their favor.