Leftists assail US ‘meddling’ in Marawi crisis

On the eve of Independence Day, the left-wing Bayan Muna party-list group questioned what it called “meddling” by the United States in the Marawi City crisis.

In a statement on Sunday, Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate urged the Duterte administration to reject support from the United States, because it “does not reflect well on the purported independent foreign policy of the administration.”

After taking office last year, President Duterte veered away from the country’s longtime security ally the United States and sidled up to China and Russia, in what he called independent foreign policy.

‘Intelligence sharing’

Yet the Armed Forces of the Philippines on Saturday confirmed the presence of US support was “limited to intelligence sharing” to help end the three-week siege.

A Reuters report quoted the US Embassy in Manila as saying US Special Forces had assisted the military “at the request of the government of the Philippines.”

A Bayan Muna statement on Sunday characterized the US assistance as “meddling.”

It noted that such military aid usually came with strings attached and recalled that the United States also took part in the bungled police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, that led to the deaths of 44 police commandos in January 2015.

Zarate said the military’s statement that support was limited to intelligence and technical assistance was “highly suspect.”

He claimed that US troops were already in Marawi even before the Maute group laid siege to the city on May 23, as they had a military facility at a nearby AFP camp.

“The question is, did the US troops know beforehand that there would be a Maute/[Islamic State group] attack but allowed it to happen as payback for President Duterte’s anti-US rhetoric?” Zarate said.