The black-bearded, Oriental-eyed
effigy ablaze before the U.S. embassy in Manila looked more like
Charlie Chan than Uncle Sam. But no one could mistake the mood of the
5,000 torch-bearing students, trade unionists and agitators swarming
before the embassy gates. Their placards read “Stop fooling us, Yankee
dogs!” and “Go home, white monkeys!” The mob shouted not only for
immediate removal of all U.S. military bases but also for things
clearly beyond U.S. control, including an increase in the minimum wage
. Then a soft rain began to
fall, and the demonstrators, mindful of their frilly barong tagalog
shirts, hastily dispersed.By Asian or African standards, the anti-American demonstration in Manila
was sedate. Some Reds were undoubtedly involved, but it seemed to be
the work mostly of a mixed lot of opportunistic politicians hoping to
exploit nationalist feeling. Still, American and Filipino officials
worried about the future of U.S.-Philippine relations and, indeed,
about the stability of the strongest anti-Communist bastion in Southeast Asia.
Given the deteriorating situation in South Viet Nam and the Communist
menace to the whole region, the Philippine Republic, which is often
hopefully regarded as the showcase of U.S. style democracy in Asia,
becomes increasingly important.Leak in the Reservoir. Last week's affair was the fourth anti-American
“demo” in three months, and although there is an immense reservoir of
pro-American feeling in the island nation, it could run out if taken
too much for granted. The last three demonstrations were set off by
tragic incidents on U.S. military bases. In November an off-duty U.S.
airman, allegedly bird hunting with a .22-cal. rifle, shot and killed a
15-year-old Filipino boy scavenging for scrap metal on Clark Air Force
Base. The next month, two Marine Corps sentries at the U.S. naval base
in Subic Bay killed one of a pair of Filipino fishermen who the marines
believed were pilfering from a dockside ammo dump.The killings brought to 32 the number of Filipinos slain on U.S. bases
since 1952. Under the U.S.-Philippine 99-year military-base treaty,
American courts-martial have jurisdiction over U.S. servicemen, whether
their transgressions are committed while on duty or off. This angers
many Filipinos, who feel that Filipino courts should try off-duty
offenders—and Washington has in fact indicated that it is willing to
make concessions on this point.At the same time, pilferage is a major problem. In the first nine months
of 1964, more than $171 million in goods was lifted from tightly
guarded Clark Field, including hundreds of bombs, some as large as 750
Ibs. Some of the weapons and ammo filter to remnants of the Communist
Huk guerrilla forces holed up on Luzon. But mostly the Filipino
operators sell the explosives to dynamite-fishermen and trade the empty cases on
Manila's booming scrap-metal market. Pilferers have stolen airfield
landing lights, miles of fencing, electric cables, strips of portable
runway, and even a five-ton landing chain.
