(The Manila Times) Turning to the headline topic, it behooves Filipinos, especially the millions enamored of America and wanting its forces in our air, sea and land supposedly for our protection, to keep in mind the rightful assessment of the United States from no less than the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr., echoing the nationalist, anti-colonial thinking of Claro M. Recto.
In 1965, his first year as president, Marcos Sr. pointed out that “it is to serve her own self-interest and to safeguard her security as a nation and her position as a world leader, and only incidentally for our protection, that America has built up her imposing military and diplomatic establishments in our country” (“The Foreign Policy of Ferdinand Marcos: From Traditionalism to Realism” https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42981548.pdf).
A decade later, the martial-law ruler warned: “If the purpose of American military bases is to strengthen American military posture in the Pacific, or in the Indian Ocean and throughout the world, does this not expose the Philippines to the animosities, suspicions and the conflicts arising out of this American military build-up — animosities and conflicts that we have no participation in making, and do not these bases endanger the safety of the Filipinos and the Philippines not only from conventional armed attack, but from possible nuclear attack?”.. Read More
