U.S. Seeks Reduced Philippine Military Presence

The United States will go to the negotiating table here today ready to propose a sharp reduction, but not an end, to the U.S. military presence in the Philippines over the next 10 to 12 years, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Specifically, sources said, the Pentagon, wants to keep as many as 5,000 troops, about a third of the present number, and retain access well into the next century for visiting U.S. troops, ships and planes to what are now American-run military installations.

The sources stressed that President Bush’s negotiator, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard L. Armitage, will propose a “phase-down” of U.S. troops rather than a phase-out. Newspaper reports from Washington last week suggested that the United States is prepared to withdraw from the Philippines.

“Phase-down means a reduction,” one official said, “but still some presence, still some access. (It’s) not lock the gates, throw away the key and go home.”

“We want to trade presence for access,” another official said.

Stanley Schrager, a spokesman for the U.S. delegation, said of the military facilities: “They will be Philippine bases to which the U.S. would hope to have some access as it has with other countries around the world.”

Schrager did not provide specifics. However, the sources said Washington hopes to keep access to Clark Air Base, the naval base on Subic Bay and the pilot combat training range at Crow Valley

The U.S. proposals are likely to meet stiff resistance from the Philippine side, led by Foreign Secretary Raul Manglapus. Leading political figures in Manila this week called for a withdrawal period of five to 10 years, leading to full conversion of the military facilities to civilian management and use.

The United States has about 16,000 troops, plus about 22,000 dependents and Defense Department employees, at six military facilities in the Philippines.

Formal negotiations began Tuesday on the future of the bases, hours after Philippine President Corazon Aquino called, for the first time, for an orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces. Both sides attribute the new attitudes to reduced tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and a rising tide of Philippine nationalism.

The current round of talks is expected to end Friday and to resume later in Washington.

Philippine spokesman Rafael Alunan III said a formal agreement is not likely this week.

Americans were warned Wednesday night of “a possible imminent terrorist bombing” by the Communist New People’s Army in the neighborhood where the talks are being held.

The U.S. State Department said in Washington that the danger was “in the vicinity of Roxas Boulevard in Manila.” Several hotels, the U.S. Embassy and the central bank building where the bases talks are being held lie along the boulevard.