On June 12, various patriotic groups commemorated the 127th year of the country’s false independence through a protest before the US embassy in Manila. They condemned the US for its intensifying intervention and military involvement in the Philippines, as well as its criminal role in the genocide in Palestine.

They condemned the US for its ongoing expansion of military bases, increasing stockpiling of its weapons, and its conduct of war games in the Philippines. They recognize that the US-Marcos puppet regime uses the conflict in the Philippine Sea with China to justify war preparations that turn the country into a staging ground of war.

In the first half of this year alone, the US conducted three major simultaneous war games, before and after the massive Balikatan. Thousands of American troops participated, bringing hundreds of vehicles and weapons stationed in various parts of the country. The war games used the Typhon Mid-Range Capability missile system, the Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), and the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS). Recently, the US announced the deployment of additional Typhon missile systems in the country.

One of these war games was Salaknib Phase 2, held in Nueva Ecija, Cagayan, and Batanes, until June 20. As in 2024, the US Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center-Exportable (JPMRC-X) led the exercise for a “realistic coordination” among the US, Philippine, and other troops against “security threats in the Indo-Pacific,” clearly referring to China. Alongside Salaknib 2, Kamandag was held in Luzon and Kasangga of the Philippines and Australia in Mindanao.

The Marcos regime’s subservience stands out for the number of military agreements which it, and the fascist Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), have entered into with the allies of US imperialism.

Within the US Indo-Pacific Strategy’s framework, Marcos agreed in 2023 to increase the number of US military bases in the country under EDCA. He and the AFP bound themselves to the Bilateral Defense Guidelines and formalized intelligence sharing with the US on sensitive national security information through the Military Intelligence Sharing Agreement signed in 2024.

The regime has signed or will sign at least five more military agreements with US allies from 2022 to 2025. Through these agreements, Ferdinand Marcos Jr granted foreign troops unlimited access to Philippine resources, land, airspace, and waters. He also allowed Japanese, New Zealander, Canadian, and French troops, as well as others invited by the US, to operate in the Philippines with almost no accountability to local regulations and laws.

One of these agreements is the Japan-Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), which the Japanese parliament ratified on June 6. Representatives of both countries first signed it last year, and the Philippine Senate ratified it in December 2024. In both Japan and the Philippines, the people strongly opposed the agreement, saying it serves only the geopolitical ambitions of both Japan and the US.

In April, the Marcos regime successively signed the Defense Cooperation Agreement with Germany and the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) with New Zealand. The first allows Germany to sell its weapons to the Philippines with US approval, while the second permits New Zealand troops to enter and leave the country to participate in US-led war games and combat operations. Two more SOVFAs, with Canada and France, with the same purpose and rationale, are set for Marcos’s signature this year. These add to the SOVFA signed by the Philippines with Australia in 2007.

Through these agreements, Marcos invites all US colluders to trample on Philippine sovereignty and use the country and its people as pawns in its conflict with China. This is a major mistake because it further isolates the Philippines from neighboring countries and increases tensions in the Asian region.