Beyond EDCA

May 8, 2025

The Marcos Jr government is allowing the US military to access facilities beyond the agreed nine EDCA sites – like Subic Bay, a former US military base. This has effectively turned the Philippines into one big US military base, placing the country and Filipinos on the frontlines of a conflict they won’t benefit from.

Escalating US militarism in PH: Are we drilling for war?

May 2, 2025

FEATURES

Despite its claims of seeking peace and protecting Philippine sovereignty against China’s self-assertion, the US reveals its true intentions by preparing for wars in pursuit of its interests.

Biggest Balikatan exercises, US militarism worsens

April 26, 2025

The 2025 US-Philippines Balikatan is the largest ever, involving over 14,000 troops from the US, Philippines, Australia, Japan, and 16 observer countries. The drills are held strategically near Taiwan and the South China Sea as the US recalibrates its military and economic hegemony.

US military presence in the Philippines, 2016 to April 2023

April 20, 2023

Despite the Duterte administration’s posturing against the US in 2016, the global superpower has essentially maintained a huge military presence in the Philippines until today. Cumulatively, from 2016 to April 2023, there have been a total of 227 drills: 68 sea-related, 116 air-related and 143 land-related. US troops are also currently located in 9 EDCA […]

US troops double to record high in Balikatan 2023

April 3, 2023

The number of US troops involved in the Baliktan 2023 military exercises has doubled compared to previous years. This is because the Philippines remains strategically important for the US’ geopolitical dominance in the Indo-Pacific – as a center of global trade and commerce and amid China aggression in the West Philippine Sea. But this will not necessarily benefit the Philippines as it becomes another base for US hegemony and militarism.

Then and now: US economic intervention in the Philippines

November 14, 2016

During the swearing-in of the new United States (US) ambassador to the Philippines in early November, US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that the “logic” of the “indelible” US-Philippine alliance is “as compelling today as [it has] ever been”. Newly sworn-in US ambassador Sung Kim in turn highlighted the “ironclad” Mutual Defense Treaty, the […]

EDCA: Overstating economic gains

June 20, 2014

Government is clearly exaggerating the supposed economic gains from EDCA while concealing the fact that negotiators gave too many unjustifiable perks to the US