373. Memorandum From the Second Secretary of Embassy in the Philippines (Brand) to the Counselor of Embassy (Walker)1
SUBJECT
- Problem of United States Bases
At present the United States has bilateral security treaties with the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and Nationalist China. Under the treaty with the Philippines, the United States has established a major air force base at Clark Field in Central Luzon and a major fleet and fleet air base at Subie Bay, just outside Manila Bay on the west coast of Luzon. In addition, there is a Naval Air Station at Sangley Point in the City of Cavite in Manila Bay, and a port unloading facility in the harbor of the City of Manila, which serves Clark Field. We claim, in addition, title to several obsolete military installations once operated by United States Armed Forces in prewar days.
With the successful revision in 1955 of the Bell Trade Act governing economic relations between the Philippines and the United States, the question of the administration of military bases in terms of Philippine-United States bilateral base agreements has become easily the most important issue troubling United States-Philippine relations today. Various questions of interpretation have exploded several times during the past year, and the whole problem, although relatively quiescent at the moment, smolders on, providing a ready source of inflammatory material for those Filipino politicians who favor a sharp change in Philippine foreign policy to a more “nationalistic and independent” line, evidently along the lines of the Indian or Indonesian positions.
This group of opposition leaders argues that Philippine independence is not, in fact, complete, but that the United States is still [Page 626] in control of the country even though the visible forms of control have gone. For this political group the United States bases are a constant source of political ammunition. First, they have interpreted the United States position on the question of ownership as a United States claim to extraterritoriality and to United States sovereignty outside Philippine jurisdiction. This impression has become widespread, partly because the Filipinos have not understood the complicated and theoretical legal argument that the United States retains legal title to installations now operated by the Philippine Armed Forces and to parts of the existing United States bases. More important, this impression of United States sovereignty has been bolstered by the methods by which the bases have been administered by the United States Armed Forces. At Subie Bay, a city of 65,000 Filipino citizens (Olongapo) has been built inside the United States base and is administered under the supervision and regulation of the United States military authorities. A controversy between its citizens over the dismissal of the high school principal became an international incident of the first magnitude recently when United States Navy authorities became involved in their role as the city’s real guiding authority. At the same time an equally serious furor arose over the question of Filipino citizens transiting the Subie Bay Base via Philippine National Highway No. 7, which passes through its heart. In this case United States Navy authorities insisted that civilians in transit from Manila to Zambales Province disembark from buses and submit to thorough search, even though they had no intention of remaining within the base. In both these cases, the problems, although patched up temporarily, will surely return in these or other forms to keep the issue burning brightly.
Yet there is little sign that United States military authorities have realized that these issues, which are relatively unimportant to them, are reinforcing the popular belief that United States bases infringe on Philippine sovereignty and thus corroding the basis for the excellent existing Philippine-American relations, one of the best strategic assets the United States has in the Far East. The military authorities seem to view this basic problem complacently and seem content to resolve individual “symptoms” only as each one flares up.
If the United States is to maintain its strategic military position in the Pacific Area, it is essential that the nagging problems of ownership and administration of our bases in the Philippines be solved promptly. We cannot afford to let these relatively minor issues continue to poison Philippine-American relations, thus strengthening the anti-Americans and neutralists in Philippine politics and thus possibly eventually threatening the bases themselves and our strategic position in the Far East. Continuing to ignore or to depreciate the importance of these problems merely feeds the basic resentment which [Page 627] the political opposition is cultivating. From a political and strategic point of view, the United States Government will have to revise its approach to the questions of ownership and administration of these bases in the light of our base agreements with other sovereign nations, if it is to maintain the reservoir of good will which we have in the Philippines.
Suggestions for Remedying the Situation
Renegotiation of our base agreement is long overdue and should be started soon. However, at such negotiations it would be poor strategy to continue claiming ownership of military property in the hope of trading this claim for concrete commitments from the Philippine Government. The mere reiteration of the ownership question is apt to raise enough resentment to threaten the success of any discussion in which it is raised. Further, U.S. military authorities must be prepared to take steps to solve the problems arising out of administration of the bases. The status quo cannot be continued in the wishful hope that outbreaks of protest are merely the scattered work of “anti-Americans”. The argument of base security cannot long be used as a coverall to prevent Philippine authorities from exercising jurisdiction over their own citizens inside United States military bases. Therefore, their citizens’ daily life must be separated from the bases themselves. The United States Government must be prepared to take drastic action, including considerable expenditure to correct situations where at present large masses of Filipinos live in or transit military areas in which security is a paramount requirement.
The overall solution need not be a difficult one. It is to approach negotiations with the understanding that the Philippines is truly a sovereign nation and must be treated as one. With such an attitude the United States can successfully conduct negotiations to produce an agreement which, while it protects the essentials of United States military security in the Far East, accepts a relationship with the Philippines which does not constantly exacerbate their normal national pride. We must establish here the same equal and mutually beneficial relationship which we have established with other free allied nations in other parts of the world.
- Source: Department of State,SPA Files: Lot 63 D 51, Base Negotiations. Confidential.↩