Abstract

Meanwhile, in Manila..

This is the first article in a series examining how the Bush Administration's war on terror has transformed politics, reshuffled alliances and altered the dynamics of local conflicts around the world. Eight days after September 11, 2001, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, like a pilot fish astride a whale shark, became the first Asian leader to endorse the Bush Administration's global war on terrorism. By doing so, she internationalized her country's two internal conflicts, facilitated the revival of US proprietary aims on the archipelago and opened what was then termed the second front in the war. Since February 2002, US troops have been deployed on the islands for a series of joint exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), apparently in violation of the Philippine Constitution, which prohibits the presence of foreign troops in the country. Arroyo's enthusiastic support for Bush's war, while embarrassing to nationalists, is unsurprising. Philippine leaders have traditionally used the country's strategic location in Southeast Asia to extract economic and military aid from the United States, which has always viewed the Philippines as crucial to maintaining its regional and global hegemony. Maintaining this cozy, neocolonial vassalage has virtually guaranteed US interference in Philippine affairs. What have been the effects of war on terrorism in the Philippines? Rather than improve the lives of those directly affected, it has made them worse. Playing the subaltern in the war on terrorism has also enabled the Philippine military to push its own agenda to the forefront.