PHILIPPINES-UNITED STATES: Clinton Visit May Mend Ties (1)

MANILA, Nov 09 (IPS) - Coming three years after the U.S. military was forced to quit its bases in the Philippines, President Bill Clinton's visit to Manila this weekend gives Washington a fresh chance to mend the love-hate relationship with its former colony.

Clinton will be in the Philippines for just 22 hours, but his stopover for which Manila has been working on for two years, brings with it heaps of symbolism. It is the first visit here by a U.S. president in two decades.

Clinton will arrive Saturday and leave the next day for the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' meeting in Indonesia.

In contrast to the years when they bickered over the benefits of the U.S. bases, the two countries' ties have more recently dealt with trade, regional security and democratic values.

U.S. officials say Clinton will highlight the two countries' "shared sacrifices" in the Pacific War and the Philippines' budding growth under a democratic set-up.

Both countries are busy marking the 50th anniversary of various battles of the end of the Pacific War, and Clinton's itinerary includes visits to the big American Cemetery in Manila and Corregidor Island, where U.S. and Filipinos took heavy casualties wresting it back from the occupying Japanese.

"The President of the United States is coming here show that he supports not only our economic development, but that we continue to move forward even under a democracy," Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo said. "That's an extremely important message."

The United States remains the largest investor in the Philippines, and some firms have been in the former U.S. colony for nearly a century. The United States is the country's largest trading partner, with two-way trade worth seven billion dollars a year.

The two countries will also sign treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance. But concern is already mounting over the possibility that Washington could ask the Philippines to allow its military supply ships to anchor in its waters, for use in crises in the Middle East or Northeast Asia or disaster relief.

Thailand rejected the proposal last month, saying an arms depot in the Gulf of Thailand could "lead to misunderstanding among other others in the region." Indonesia and Malaysia say they will turn down any U.S. request for "prepositioning" of supply ships.

The United States has since said it is on the look-out for other sites in South-east Asia, leading political analysts here to suspect the Philippines as a likely target.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service