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From The Militant, Vol. X No. 18, 4 May 1946, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
July 4 of this year was to have been a red letter day; for the people of the Philippines, for it was to have marked the beginning of their national independence. This independence was promised them over fifty years ago by their American masters and specifically provided for in the Tydings-McDuffie Act passed by Congress before the war.
But as the time approaches for American imperialism to make good on its promise of independence, it is revealing more and more clearly that it has no intention of taking its greedy hands of the Philippines.
This month Senator Tydings and Representative Bell introduced in Congress amendments to the Philippine Independence Act which, if passed, would rob the Islands of sovereignty and lay them open to continued direct plunder by the American imperialists. The amendments would freeze in American hands all property, resources or military installations already owned or possessed by them.
This legislation would provide for the exploitation, development and utilization of the natural resources, of the Islands, and the mineral rights, including power and the operation of utilities, to the United States upon equal footing with the citizens of the Philippines. Wall Street and the native worker would, for instance, have equal right to purchase Manila’s street railway system – providing of course that it was not already owned by Wall Street, which happens to be the case.
American imperialism is not only determined to continue siphoning from the Philippines all their material riches, but equally set upon maintaining the Islands as a military bastion. The General Staff plan for World War III calls for the catapulting of millions of troops into Asia, and the Philippines are marked as the springboard in that operation.
U.S. Army, Navy and Marine installations there are among the most extensive in the world. Even after the granting of so-called independence, the Islands will be garrisoned by 129,000 American troops, according to U.S. Commissioner Paul V. McNutt. Wall Street’s economic and strategic stake in the orient is such that it will allow the Philippine people only token control over their own destinies.
Cries of protest rang throughout the Philippine Islands when news of the Congressional amendments reached the people. Even the Washington puppet, Philippine President Osmena. found it impossible to go along with such a flagrant attack upon his country’s rights. On April 5 he denounced the amendments as a “curtailment of Philippine sovereignty, virtual nullification of Philippine independence ...”
Coincidental with the Congressional moves in Washington, the 86th Infantry Division in Manila was reorganized “along combat lines.” The significance of this alerting of American occupation forces is obvious. Wall Street takes no chances.
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