The decision by the US government to cancel a major joint military exercise with the Philippines has prompted angry denunciations, with critics accusing Washington of putting pressure on Manila as it seeks to gain custody of a US Marine convicted of raping a local woman.
Admiral William Fallon, commander of US military forces in the Pacific, said on Thursday that he was canceling the joint military exercise, scheduled for February, because of Manila's failure to turn over Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to US authorities.
A local court convicted Smith earlier this month of raping a woman in November of last year at a former US military base north of Manila.
The US Embassy says that under the Visiting Forces Agreement signed by both countries, Smith should be in the custody of the embassy while he appeals his conviction.
Fallon said in an interview on Thursday that the US would halt aid and reconstruction programs carried out by the US military here until he was confident the troops' legal rights would be protected.
While US military bases in this former colony were closed in 1991, hundreds of US troops have been sent to the southern island of Mindanao to help Filipino troops fight groups like Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, which have been linked to al-Qaeda.
Wigberto Tanada, a former senator who is representing the woman in fighting Smith's appeal, said Washington's cancelation of the exercises and the threat to suspend military aid "is just another way of putting pressure on the Philippine government."
This, he said, "is most unfortunate, because it seems that despite the long period of special relations between the US and the Philippines, the Americans still have not learned to treat us as equals."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese