Amid widespread nationwide public outcry and opposition, the first large-scale joint military exercise after the Senate ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the first RP-US war games in the year 2000 will be held from January 28 to March 3,2000. This follows the small-scale "Balance Piston" exercise held last Oct. 1999 in the Philippines. A total of eight RP US war games have been scheduled for this year alone. Preliminary seminars/briefings will be held from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6 while land, air and sea exercises will be held from Feb. 21 to March 3. Security is being tightened around areas where U.S. forces will be staying and/or conducting military exercises. This is because local opposition to the VFA and war games is so widespread and intense that US and Philippine authorities fear disruption of the exercises and threats to the personal security of U.S. personnel despite the legal immunity granted to them on Philippine soil by the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement.

Code-named "Balikatan" (literally meaning shoulder to shoulder) the war games will involve a combined total of 4,773 Filipino and U.S. troops. 2000 U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa, Japan and the Pacific Command in Hawaii are expected to participate in the Balikatan activities which will take place in several provinces including Pampanga (Clark), Zambales (Subic), Nueva Ecija (Fort Magsaysay, Laur), Cavite and Palawan. Counter-insurgency civil-military operations under the guise of "civic action" will be conducted in the above-named provinces.

Already, the red light districts in some Central Luzon provinces like Fields Avenue in Angeles City ,which is a two-kilometer rest and recreation strip where the city's 300 bars are mostly concentrated. Three hotels in Angeles City have been reserved for "rest and recreational activities" of the visiting U.S. forces. During a recent public interview during the first week of January, 2000 Pres. Estrada admitted that an advance party of CIA agents and U.S. intelligence operatives had been sent to the Philippines as part of the security contingent to pave the way for the participating U.S. military forces.

Anticipating possible abuses that may give adverse publicity to the VFA, no less than Pres. Estrada has formed a presidential commission through Executive Order No. 199 last Jan. 17 "to ensure US troops compliance with the RP-U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement while conducting military exercises here." The special commission is jointly headed by Foreign secretary Domingo Siazon and Defense secretary Orlando Mercado, and it was set up "to ensure respect for Philippine laws, state policies, public morals, customs and traditions and strict compliance with the provisions of the VFA." The commission was also given the task of assessing the "environmental, social and health impact of the military exercises in areas where they are held." Other commission members include Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Justice secretary Serafin Cuevas, Health secretary Alberto Romualdez and Environment secretary Antonio Cerilles. These actions are practically an admission by the Philippine government that the country is very vulnerable to these abuses and adverse effects with the implementation of the VFA.

It has also been reported late in 1999, that because of the adverse publicity about a visiting US naval vessel on port visit in Cebu City, the US and Philippine panels in the Mutual Defense Board set up a special group to counter adverse publicity about the VFA and to manage pro-VFA propaganda. Part of the public relations campaign is to highlight the transfer of US surplus "excess" equipment to the Armed Forces of the Philippines before the war games. Based on past experience, these "defense excess equipment" are often junk or outmoded equipment of the U.S. army or which have been phased out as basic equipment. This is why the past 50 years of US military assistance has only made the AFP the weakest armed force in Asia. In addition to this, the Department of Foreign Affairs has set up a Task Force on the VFA.

Despite all these preparations and public relations to sugarcoat these war games, and despite the legal immunity given to them by the VFA, the U.S. war machine and its armed forces of global intervention will not be immune from the wrath and enmity of the Filipino people. They will be hounded by our people everywhere and anywhere they abuse our women and children, poison our harbors and destroy our forests and mountains with their shell-fire.