On the Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) last April 9, national-democratic groups protested near the US embassy in Manila to mark the Filipino people’s resistance against foreign military intervention and the defense of the Philippines’ genuine freedom. They condemned the US for its provocative war games, the permanent basing of its troops in the Philippines, and its intensifying intervention and meddling in the country.

At present, American troops swarm various parts of the country for successive war games in connection with the annual Balikatan. These include the Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (Aurora), Command-and-Control Exercise (Quezon City), Multilateral Maritime Exercise (South China Sea), Salaknib (Nueva Ecija), Cope Thunder (Pampanga), and Marex (Cotabato City). Alongside these are the publicity-aimed civil-military operations, such as the US Navy’s dental services, in civilian communities in Palawan and Mindanao.

Prominent in this year’s Balikatan is the use of NMESIS (Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System), which was brought into the country on April 17, along with unmanned surface vehicles. The first batch of NMESIS was flown to the Batanes islands where they will be prepositioned for the planned Fires Expeditionary Advanced Base or EAB. This will serve as US special forces’ outpost to control the Bashi Channel, the narrow sea passage between the Philippines and Taiwan. The US had earlier deployed the Typhon Missile System here, which was brought into the country during Balikatan 2024.

American forces at the EAB are authorized to “fire” at “enemy ships” even those within Philippine territory. This transforms the islands of Batanes into the US Navy’s firing line. This directly puts the people of Batanes, and the entire northeastern Luzon, along the first line of attack should an armed conflict between the US and China break out, especially over Taiwan.

Balikatan 2025 will also formally launch the Littoral Rotational Force-Luzon, a US Marines unit that will be permanently stationed along Luzon coasts. For the first time, Japanese forces will also directly participate in the war games, after several years of serving as observers.

China considers these maneuvers as an intensification or “escalation” of tensions between itself and the US. It warned the Marcos regime not to allow itself to be used by the US as “proxy deterrence,” especially in the Bashi Channel.

Based on public records, US aircraft carriers are frequently used in Philippine territorial waters. Aside from the Bashi Channel and Sulu Sea, US warships traverse the seas between the islands (in the San Bernadino Strait in Samar, Leyte Gulf, Balabac Strait in Palawan, and Surigao Strait). One of these is the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. It sailed near disputed territories, such as the Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal, and drew more Chinese ships and aircraft.

At least four US Navy undersea terrain survey ships were almost continuously present in the South China Sea in 2024. Their survey coverage includes the Bashi Channel, Balabac Strait, and Verde Island Passage between Mindoro and Batangas.

US Air Force bomber plains also traversed the Philippines from their military base in Guam to patrol the South China Sea. In 2024, China monitored the US sending bomber planes 32 times to conduct 56 sorties/missions, twice more frequent than in 2023. The common routes of these planes are the Bashi Channel in the north and the Sulu Sea in the south of the country.

The country is also a launchpad for unmanned aerial vehicles such as the MQ-9 Reaper UAV based at Clark Airbase and in Palawan under the US Task Force-Ayungin. In the past Balikatan, the US flew surveillance planes against China from its bases at Clark Airbase in Pampanga; Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Lal-lo Airport and Camilo Osias Naval Base in Cagayan; Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu and even at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.