Seeing as there’s so many smaller South American nations that this could happen to and then Mexico is going to get increase military aid to fight drug cartels (why is it never increased money to fight drug addiction?) I think that the following is important to post.

Dear Friends:

Please visit : http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/JunkVFAnow/

In this new era of the Obama administration, I would like to direct your
attention to the deployment of US troops in the Philippines, under the
auspices of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a joint military agreement
between the US and Philippine governments signed in 1998. The Bush
administration abused the VFA in 2001 after launching the Global War on
Terror after the 9/11 attacks to justify the so-called anti-terrorism
exercises between US and Philippine troops known as the Balikatan (in
Filipino “shoulder-to-shoulder”) exercises. The Bush administration also
tagged the Philippines as the so-called “Second Front” to the War on Terror.

The VFA is an illegal agreement based on the 1987 Philippine Constitution’s
prohibition of the permanent presence of foreign military troops in the
Philippines. It not only blatantly disregards the national sovereignty of
the Philippines, it enforces unilateralism, or acutely unequal relations
between the 2 contracting parties. One outstanding example of this is the
case of US Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, a US marine stationed in the
Philippines who was convicted in 2006 for being part of a 2005 brutal gang
rape of a 22-year old Filipina woman. It must be noted that before Smith’s
conviction, no US military personnel stationed in the Philippines had ever
been arrested, tried, and convicted for crimes committed on Philippine
territory. In addition to rape, past crimes of US troops in the Philippines
include murder and indiscriminate shootings at young children for target
practice. The VFA protects US military personnel based in the Philippines
with the guarantee of immunity from Philippine laws and jurisdiction. In
essence, the VFA enforces impunity for US criminals in the Philippines and
protects them from accountability. In contrast, Philippine nationals who
commit crimes on US territory must submit to US jurisdiction and law. Today,
Daniel Smith languishes in the US Embassy in Manila while daily protests
outside the US Embassy of demand that he be transferred to a Philippine
jail.

Next month, a minimum of 6000 US troops will be deployed to the Philippines
for Balikatan 2 in the province of Bicol. The following petition site below
addresses the unilateral character of the VFA to the new Obama
administration. It calls not for reform or suspension of the VFA, but for
abrogation or complete termination. Please take a minute out of your day to
let the Obama and Congress know that the VFA is not what we want as a US
foreign policy in Asia, that we do not want impunity for US nationals who
commit crimes overseas such as Daniel Smith, and that the US government
adhere to the principles of mutual respect and equality when engaging in
foreign diplomatic relations with other nations such as the Philippines.

SIGN NOW!!!!! Visit http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/JunkVFAnow/ and
please feel free to forward this email widely to your contacts. Marami pong
salamat!

In solidarity,

Berna Ellorin
Secretary-General
BAYAN USA