There`s both an interesting and concerning item in the Police Blotter of the Tagoloan Municipal Police Station in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.
The blotter recorded that security guard Jermie Espartero, 43, who works at the San Jia Company located at Zone I, Nabulod Baluarte, Tagoloan reported to police duty officer PSSg Cuyugan that at 10:12 AM on August 19, a group of American soldiers accompanied by personnel of PHILVIDEC, attempted to enter the premises of San Jia Company, saying that they will conduct an inspection of the site. They came in at least 6 official-looking white vans.
Since the visitors did not have any written permission to enter, the Philippine Army personnel who were on duty in the company premises refused to allow the foreigners and their companions inside. The group failed to present any permit or authorization to conduct the intended inspection. Espartero requested that the foregoing incident be placed on record for documentation and future reference. The extract from the police blotter was noted by Police Major Enrique F. Dungog, chief of police.
The above information was supplied by Herman Tiu Laurel of the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies, from a post on FB by Sass Rogando Sasot — two highly reliable writers and academics who are experts in regional geopolitics.
This incident is alarming because while the Phividec is an industrial estate and is not an official Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA site, the Department of National Defense under Secretary Gibo Teodoro is planning to host a naval facility or logistics support area within the Phividec complex. This support facility will complement the nearby EDCA location at Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro City. The two facilities, which ultimately will be run by the United States military although the Philippine government will deny it, are to serve American interests in the Indo-Pacific.
Even if the Phividec base is still in the planning stage, the American soldiers have the temerity to conduct the inspection of a private steel plant inside the complex, probably to draw the plans for the Philippine Navy`s facility. If it is our naval bases that will be built, why the presence of the Americans? And why are they operating in our own soil without even the authorization of the private owners?
Incidentally, Sanjia Steel Plant was targeted by Gibo in the anomalous raid on some 100 Chinese and Filipino workers who were accused without basis of various labor and immigration violations. The Chinese were arrested and detained in Manila under abysmal circumstances, but were later released because it was established that they did not commit any crime or violation.
This same harassment and underhanded modus operandi was repeated by the PACC, the NBI and Gibo Teodoro against another steel plant in Magalang, Pampanga and in Davao City. In all three instances, Chinese workers were the ones put under fire.
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