EU welcomes Manila-rebel peace accord

BRUSSELS: EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton welcomed yesterday an accord between Manila and the Philippines’ biggest Muslim rebel group to end a decades-long separatist insurgency in which more than 150,000 people died.
“The early signature of this truly historical document is a major step towards a long-lasting peace in Mindanao, which will lead the island to stability and prosperity,” Ashton said in a statement.
“The EU, as a member of the International Monitoring Team and major development partner in poverty alleviation in Mindanao since 1990, will continue to lend its full support.”
The agreement provides for a new semi-autonomous Muslim area in the resource-rich southern Philippine region of Mindanao, which the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front regards as its ancestral homeland.
The rebellion claimed more than 150,000 lives, most in the 1970s when all-out war raged, and left large parts of Mindanao in deep poverty.
Separately, the Philippines said yesterday a former US naval base facing the South China Sea could play a key role as a hub for American ships as Washington moves to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific.
Once the US military’s largest overseas facility, the former Subic Bay naval base 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Manila has been transformed into a freeport and tourism zone since it was shut down in 1992.
But a senior Philippine official pointed out that, with the United States planning to shift the bulk of its fleet to the Pacific by 2020 as it focuses on Asia, it would need natural deep water bays to dock its ships and submarines.
“Based on US official pronouncements, there is a strategic rebalancing (of its forces) and that means more assets, more aircraft in the Western Pacific,” said Edilberto Adan, a former general who heads the government’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) commission.
“There are very few ports that can accommodate naval assets and naval carriers, and one of them is Subic.
“As the US begins to implement (the shift), Subic will play an important role because it is one of the important facilities that can service their presence in the Pacific.”
He said Subic could “provide the necessary port calls, port visits and servicing required by US assets, naval or aircraft”.
Adan was talking to reporters at Subic Bay aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious Marine Expeditionary Unit assault ship taking part in a 10-day joint exercises with Filipino forces.
Subic, along with the nearby Clark Airbase, were key facilities for the United States, the former colonial ruler of the Philippines, during World War II.
They then provided logistical support during the Vietnam War in the 1970s, and remained of strategic importance during the Cold War.
Clark closed down in 1991 after nearby Mount Pinatubo volcano erupted, covering the base in ash and making it unusable.
Subic, which is in the northern town of Olangapo facing the South China Sea, survived the eruption.
But, amid strong nationalist sentiment and street protests calling for US troops to leave the Philippines, the Senate voted in 1992 to end a lease agreement that allowed the bases to operate.
In November 1992 the last US ship sailed out of Subic.