MANILA, Philippines?Party list lawmakers want an investigation into reports US military contractor Blackwater (now Xe Services LLC) is training mercenaries at the Subic Bay free port in Olongapo City.
In filing House Resolution 1380, Bayan Muna party list Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño and Neri Colmenares asked the committee on national defense and security to lead the inquiry.
?The alleged existence of the notorious Xe (formerly Blackwater) in Subic or any part of the country and its alleged recruitment and training of foreigners and Filipinos could violate our national sovereignty and our Constitution,? the lawmakers said in the resolution.
A video story posted August 28 on the Russia Today website, American investigative journalist Wayne Madsen claimed Satelles Solutions, had a ?major operating base? for the Blackwater subsidiary in the alleged Subic facility that could train up to 1,000 operatives.
Blackwater, founded by a former US Navy Seal in North Carolina, has been denounced in some US media as being America?s ?private army.? It does jobs for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Interviewed on Russia Today, Madsen asked: ?Who gave them permission? Apparently it?s against the Philippine Constitution to station foreign troops in the country ... someone is running around the Constitution of the Philippines. Obviously this is done with the permission of the president of the Philippines,? Madsen said.
He claimed the country was now a ?major operating base? for the Blackwater subsidiary.
Madsen had alleged the Subic facility could train up to 1,000 operatives. He also claimed that other US companies linked to former US Vice President Dick Cheney had also opened a shooting range at the former Clark Air Base.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator Armand Arreza denied this.
But Arreza admitted that Blackwater had submitted a proposal to set up a training facility in Subic three years ago. It was rejected, Arreza said, adding that ?we want to develop the SBMA for commercial and industrial uses. We felt that the request went against our charter.?
