CLIP FROM WASHINGTON TIMES, 14 SEP 88.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R003400370003-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 1998
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 14, 1988
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2000/08708 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003400370003-2
z taus on oases
in Philippines stymied
By Richard Beeston
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Talks between Secretary of State
George Shultz and Philippines For-
eign Minister Raul Manglapus failed
yesterday to break a negotiating im-
passe over extension of leases on key
U.S. military bases.
After a meeting at the State De-
partment, Mr. Manglapus said the
two sides were no closer and com-
plained of historical injustices over
rents for the bases. The negotiations
deadlocked in July when Mr. Shultz
visited the Philippines and quar?
reled over Philippine demands for a
huge increase in compensation for
continued.U.S. use o`l"Subic Say Na-
v and Clark Air Base '
Ph pine negf ators, citing the
large aid sums paid by the United
States to Israel and Egypt, have de-
manded an annual increase from the
_rrent $180 million to $1.2 billion.
The United States has raised its offer
to nearly $500 million in rent and
tither aid.
Mr. Manglapus said yesterday
that his government had modified its
demands and the two sides were not
very far apart. They were now look-
ing for "creative ways" of reaching
the level thought to be desirable but
had not been able to agree, he said.
Asked if the Philippines were not
behaving ungratefully after the sup-
port the United States has given the
government of Corazon Aquino, Mr.
Mangalapus replied "since 1986 the
Philippines have been looking at
things through clear, historical
glasses.
"Filipinos have begun to realize
we have not been getting what we
ought to have been getting," he said.
"Your bases have been there since
the turn of the century. They have
been there without any accompany-
ing compensation up to the late
1970s, in contrast to your bases in
other countries who were immedi-
ately, upon inception, given compen-
sation. So the question of gratitude,
I suppose, depends on the glasses
Secretary of State George Shultz
you are using."
Asked if the United States had not
had a better deal with former Presi-
dent Ferdinand Marcos, he replied:
"In the case of Marcos, they [the
U.S.] got such an unstable fellow,
who ran away with all the money."
U.S. experts, he said, had pointed
out that the bases were in the Philip-
pines principally for American glo-
bal strategy and to protect vital sea
lanes from the Middle East to Japan
and the U.S.
"There is no external threat to the
Philippines today and no direct rela-
tionship between the bases and the
anti-insurgency effort in the Philip-
pines," he said.
"There is a relationship only in
that in the accompanying compensa-
tion enables us to acquire the weap-
onry with which to fight the insur-
gency. But let me point out that even
more weaponry and more aid is be-
ing given to some countries that host
no American bases"
Mr. Manglapus said what he had
been discussing was the review of
the terms of the present bases: "The
future of the bases after 1991 is not
under discussion. Our policy regard-
ing that is that we are holding our
options open until the time comes to
make a decision."
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003400370003-2