LFS against US Intervention in RP

US Embassy, Manila – members of League of the Filipino Students (LFS), a belligerent youth group, held a remonstration rally in the front of the US Embassy in Manila last September 11, 2009 to demand for an end of the intercession of US in the Philippines and as the part of commemoration of the 32nd anniversary of the radical youth group.


“The presence of US troops in the Philippines undermines the supposed sovereignty and independence of the country, even more so if that presence is permanent,” said Terry Ridon, secretary general of the LFS.


“The continued implementation of the Visiting Forces of Agreement (VFA) and other unequal treaties with the US has taken away the victories of decade’s worth of Filipino struggle against US intervention such as the dismantling of US Bases in 1991,” added Ridon.


The RP – US Visiting Force Agreement is a two-pronged union between the two states which has been made effective on May 27, 1999. VFA are principally completed between a country and a foreign nation having military forces visiting in that country.


“The people’s battle cry in the anti – base struggle was down with the US Imperialism and that remains appropriate, if not even more so today,” said Ridon.
“After a decade since it was ratified, we ask what the people has gotten out of the VFA. The supposed aid that is being given by the US troops in Mindanao service nothing but a smokescreen to their intervention in the country. It is nothing if it costs our freedom,” added Ridon.


The protesters said that they shall not stop rallying in the US Embassy unless they see an end to foreign intervention in the country. The group also pointed out US as the “root of the crisis”.


And Ridon stated on LFS website, “We know that the US shall never grant genuine independence to the Philippines and Arroyo’s government shall always remain subservient to the demands of her foreign master. The task of asserting independence therefore falls on the people and we shall never waver in our militance and struggle for genuine independence”.