US Spies in Mindanao Anger Filipino Senates

Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. criticized the American spies’ deployment in this Southeast Asian country, particularly in Mindanao, as a violation of the Philippine Constitution if not covered by a treaty approved by the Senate.

“I have asked the Senate to look into this case,” he told IslamOnline.net Monday, January 31.

Pimentel said that “the Constitution is very clear that no foreign military bases or troops will be allowed in Philippine territory unless this is in accordance with a bilateral treaty ratified by a two-thirds vote of the Philippine Senate and a similar vote in the US Senate.”

“Therefore,” he emphasized, “the American spies already in Mindanao should leave the country upon accomplishing their mission. Otherwise, continued and indefinite stay would circumvent the Constitution on the presence of foreign troops.”

US Moves

American spies sent by Washington to the country, Pimentel further stressed, will be operating illegally unless they are placed under the direct supervision of Philippine authorities if they are part of the intelligence-sharing agreement between the two countries.

He also lashed at the creation of a new spy network in the Pentagon focused on countries like the Philippines and Indonesia saying this “could be a signal on the part of Washington” that “it is turning up the heat one or two notches” insofar the counter-terrorism campaign there is concerned.

“President George W. Bush probably needed an infusion of new tactics to convince the American public that he is on the right track in fighting terrorism anywhere in the world,” Pimentel said.

Last Monday, US ambassador to Manila Francis Ricciardone admitted there were some 70 American operatives deployed in Mindanao, which, he said, is part of the “ongoing cooperation” between Manila and the United States on operations and intelligence fusion against terrorists.

He explained that the operation-intelligence fusion “means using our knowledge of how to bring intelligence and operations closer together in real time, using technology and organization, and computerization and so forth.”

Senate Fury

But Filipino Senator Rodolfo Biazon, a former Armed Forces chief of staff, supported Pimentel, who is a senator from Mindanao.

He said on the Senate floor that the Articles of War has an espionage provision, where “during times of war, the penalty for spies is death” although that might have been superseded by the Constitution of 1987.

Still, he said, “we have an article in the Revised Penal Code which penalizes the conduct of spying in our own country in behalf of another country. And there are no distinctions, I think, in that law whether that country is a friendly country or a hostile one.

“I think the provision only states that if anyone is spying on behalf of another nation without qualification whether it is friendly or hostile is punishable by that law.”

Ricciardone said the American spies were sent to help the Philippine government run after “terrorists” but they work in the background and not in the frontline.

“Your shooters go after them. Your law enforcement officers. We stand back from that, and we try to enable them by helping with the training, advice, intelligence, and that sort of thing,” he said during the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines’ meeting last week.

The United States forged a Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines in 1951, which is still in effect until today.

Both countries also have a Visiting Forces Agreement, which allows the joint conduct of training of their military forces.

Under the two agreements, the United States has been helping the Philippines go after the Abu Sayyaf, a group involved in the high-profile kidnapping of foreign tourists in Malaysian and Philippine resorts.

Philippine military officials have repeatedly claimed Abu Sayyaf members are still in Mindanao.