{"id":15632,"date":"2012-07-02T06:53:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T14:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=15632"},"modified":"2012-07-02T06:53:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T14:53:25","slug":"filipino-government-continues-crimes-as-us-aid-flows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/02\/filipino-government-continues-crimes-as-us-aid-flows\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipino Government Continues Crimes as US Aid Flows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Human Rights Watch is again <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2012\/06\/27\/philippines-two-years-under-aquino-abuses-go-unpunished\">calling on President Aquino<\/a> of the Philippines to prosecute and put a stop to the rampant torture, extra-judicial killings, and disappearances of &#8220;leftist activists, journalists, and clergy.&#8221; The Aquino government has only been in power for two years, but is resembling his\u00a0unscrupulous predecessors after having &#8220;not successfully prosecuted a single case of extrajudicial killing or enforced disappearance, including those committed during his presidency.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Washington has been supporting the Filipino government throughout. Just since Obama took office, taxpayers sent <a href=\"http:\/\/foreignassistance.gov\/OU.aspx?OUID=190&amp;FY=2013&amp;AgencyID=0&amp;budTab=tab_Bud_Planned\">approximately $841.7 million<\/a> to the Filipino government, making it one of the biggest recipients of US military aid in all of Asia, at a time when <a href=\"http:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2011\/09\/03\/cables-note-us-supported-atrocities-in-philippines\/\">numerous embassy cables<\/a> released by WikiLeaks acknowledge systematic extrajudicial killings, abduction, and false arrests perpetrated by the US-supported security forces. In March, the Obama administration <a href=\"http:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2012\/03\/29\/in-exchange-for-arms-philippines-oks-greater-us-military-presence\/\">secured a deal<\/a> with the Aquino government in which Washington would send arms and increase direct training to Filipino security forces in exchange for permission to expand US military presence in the country.<\/p>\n<p>About 600 U.S. Special Operations Forces have remained in the country in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2011\/09\/03\/us-in-mini-quagmire-in-philippines-war-on-terror\/\">a wasteful imperial project<\/a>, targeting a militant group that presents no threat to the US.\u00a0American reach has been widening in the Philippines for years now, but especially in recent months. In February,\u00a0Washington\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.atimes.com\/atimes\/Southeast_Asia\/NB29Ae01.html\">launched a drone strike in the southern Philippines<\/a>\u00a0that reportedly killed 15 people associated with Islamic militant groups.\u00a0The drone strike prompted angry reactions from many in the Philippines weary of US breach of their sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>Washington is putting resources towards an exaggerated militant threat in the Philippines and is complicit in state crimes and human rights abuses there all in order to implement\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2011\/11\/17\/us-seeks-to-maintain-hegemony-in-asia-pacific\/\">a broader imperial plan to counter China\u2019s regional influence<\/a>. As always, the interests of the state in foreign policy transcend all else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Human Rights Watch is again calling on President Aquino of the Philippines to prosecute and put a stop to the rampant torture, extra-judicial killings, and disappearances of &#8220;leftist activists, journalists, and clergy.&#8221; The Aquino government has only been in power for two years, but is resembling his\u00a0unscrupulous predecessors after having &#8220;not successfully prosecuted a single [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15632"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15634,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15632\/revisions\/15634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15632"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}