Philippine leftist rebel group accuses US of militarising disaster response

The leftist rebel group, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), accused Sunday the United States for using the tragedy wrought by typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) to justify its operations to further increase the presence of its military warships and armed troops in the Philippines. The CPP, the umbrella organization of the New People's Army and the National Democratic Front (NPA-NDF), said in a statement that the U.S. government is militarizing disaster response in the Philippines, in much the same way that it militarized disaster response in Haiti in the 2010 earthquake. "What the disaster victims need urgently are food, water and medical attention, not U.S. warships bringing in emergency rations to justify their armed presence in Philippine sovereign waters," it said. If the U.S. government were really interested in providing assistance to countries who have suffered from calamities, the CPP said that the United States should increase its funds to civilian agencies that deal in disaster response and emergency relief, "not in fattening its international military forces and taking advantage of the people's miseries to justify their presence." The United States has deployed more than 50 ships and aircraft to assist search-and-rescue operations and to airlift emergency supplies, including the George Washington battle group, in central Philippine province of Eastern Samar. The CPP-NPA-NDF has been waging war against the Philippine government for over four decades.