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Press Statement
16 August 2008
US AMBASSADOR KENNEY IS LYING
ABOUT US INVOLVEMENT IN MOA-AD SHAM
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
US ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney is blatantly lying by
claiming that she was merely invited to witness the aborted signing of the
Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), that she was
ignorant of its content and that the US government had nothing to do with
the GRP-MILF peace negotiations nor with the controversial MOA-AD.
It is a matter of public knowledge that on behalf of the US government she
frequently travels to Mindanao and oversees US interests there, including
US direct investments, military forces and pseudo-development projects.
She has worked closely with the Philippine Facilitation Project of the US
Institute of Peace in steering the course of GRP-MILF peace negotiations
for the sake of US interests. The Filipino people know that the US covets
the oil and other natural resources of Mindanao and wants to establish US
military bases there to protect US imperial interests.
There is documentary evidence to prove that Ambassador Kenney is lying.
This is the Special Report 202 by the US Institute of Peace, titled
“Toward Peace in the Southern Philippines” (A summary and assessment of
the USIP Philippine Facilitation Project) and dated February 2008. The
report declares, “In 2003 the US State Department ...engaged the United
States Institute of Peace (USIP) to facilitate a peace agreement between
the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF.”
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It goes further, “Despite the
challenges, USIP managed to build productive relationships with both the
GRP and MILF, helped the parties come up with creative solutions to
stubborn issues of ancestral domain, and started dialogue between
disparate Moro ethnic groups.” It admits, “Through its activities, USIP
introduced concepts and approaches that were useful to both government and
MILF peace panels.”
The report is quite frank in admitting the selfish interests of the US,
“Today's complex diplomatic landscape increasingly requires new tools and
techniques of conflict management, including quasi- and nongovernmental
actors, to accomplish US foreign policy goals. Because of its ability to
deal with nonstate actors and sensitive issues underlying civil conflict,
USIP can be a useful instrument for advancing US interests.”
The USIP is funded by the US Congress and is an instrument of US foreign
policy. But it misrepresents itself as an independent and nonpartisan
institution. The chairman of the board is J. Robinson West who is chairman
of PFC Energy, Washington. Members ex-officio are Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Executive director
of the Philippine Facilitation Project is G. Eugene Martin, a retired
diplomat who once served as the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy
in Manila.
The US is not interested in a just and lasting peace in either Bangsamoro
land or in the entire Philippines. It is interested solely or mainly in
advancing US interests amidst conditions of armed conflict. It merely
pretends to facilitate the GRP-MILF peace negotiations when its sees big
advantages in doing so. But in the case of the GRP-NDFP peace
negotiations, it has outrightly sabotaged them by designating the
revolutionary forces as “terrorist” and emboldening the Arroyo regime and
its military forces to engage in gross and systematic human rights
violations under the guise of combating “terrorism”. ###
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