Communist Party of the Philippines
September 21, 2011
Focus topics: Fight US intervention!
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today said the Filipino people deserve an apology from the US government for secretly storing nuclear weapons in the Philippines in the late 1960s. It added that the US must reveal where these weapons were stockpiled and whether these have already been dismantled and properly disposed of.
This was the CPP’s reaction to a declassified document recently published online by The Archive, a research institute connected with the George Washington University. According to top secret memoranda in 1969 addressed to then State Secretary Henry Kissinger, “Divulgence of the fact that nuclear weapons are stored in the Philippines, and have been there for many years without prior consultation with the Philippine government, would gravely jeopardize US-Philippine relations.”
According to the document, only then President Ferdinand Marcos was aware of the storage of nuclear weapons.
“The US imperialist government deserves the Filipino people’s strong condemnation for having secretly stockpiled nuclear weapons in the Philippines and for having kept quiet about this fact for the past half century,” said the CPP. “The US government hypocritically claims to be a friend of the Filipino people, when the fact is that it has concealed this crucial piece of information for the past fifty years.”
“The CPP denounces the US government for having endangered the lives of millions of Filipinos by secretly stockpiling nuclear weapons in the country. In having done so, the US imperialists have committed a grave violation of Philippine sovereignty, not only by the fact that the nuclear stockpiling was done clandestinely, but because the country was used by the US military as a launching pad for its nuclear warmongering,” added the CPP.
“The US government must now reveal where these nuclear weapons were stockpiled, and whether safety standards were observed in their removal from the country,” pointed out the CPP.
“The Filipino people demand that the Aquino government stand up to the US government and insist on appropriate action and remuneration. It should not remain silent in the face of this grand deception,” said the CPP.
“The manner in which the US kept secret its nuclear stockpiling in the Philippines underscores the unequal relations between the US and the Philippines,” said the CPP. “Today, it continues to keep secret the full extent of US military intervention, its direct role in AFP strategic planning and participation in combat operations conducted in the course of the AFP’s war of suppression against the Filipino people.”
