Bayan Muna congratulates the US People and Pres. Barack Obama

Bayan Muna congratulates Sen. Barack Obama on his election as 44th president of the United States of America.

We especially congratulate the people of the United States for overcoming age-old bigotry and racial prejudices in electing their country's first African-American president.

Sen. Obama's victory signals a rejection of George W. Bush's rabid pursuance of neoliberal economics, unilateralism in foreign policies and naked military aggression that are a bane to the whole world. Such a victory opens up hope that somehow, US foreign policy might change for the better.

The challenge now is for Pres. Obama to fulfill his promise of real change, in particular the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and other places where they have conducted unilateral military action, and the dismantling of notorious detention camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and more constructive policies with regards to Iran, Syria, North Korea and other states labeled by Bush as the "Axis of Evil." He should stop the US government's policy of labeling and persecuting national liberation groups as "terrorists."

We would be pleasantly surprised if Pres. Obama's mantra of change would entail a review of US policy on the Philippines, particularly the removal of US troops and facilities from Philippine soil, the abrogation of unequal and onerous economic and political agreements like the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951, as well as a fundamental revision of RP-US relations based on the principles of mutual benefit and respect.###