The Philippine Bases: Bulwark of Dictatorship.

• Author: Schirmer, Daniel B.

Under the present arrangement, the bases have provided important support to the Philippine dictatorship. Since the imposition of martial law, the U.S. military aid provided as tacit payment for their use has doubled. There are reports that [Ferdinand] Marcos's air force has used the bases for bombing runs against his guerrilla opposition, and that martial-law personnel have used them as training centers. Moreover, U.S. expenditures for upkeep of the bases have provided the Marcos government with at least $200 million in badly needed foreign exchange and have given employment, directly or indirectly, to some 40,000 Filipinos (12,000 of them as prostitutes). Marcos is saying that all this is not enough: He wants a massive escalation of military aid from the United States, and is using the bases to enforce his demand ....

Philippine bases provided essential logistical support for the American intervention in Vietnam from 1964 to 1975. In fact, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had declared as long ago as 1945 that the Philippine bases "should be considered not merely as outposts, but as springboards from which the United States Armed Forces may be projected."

The United States abolished its colonial rule in the Philippines in 1946, but the U.S...