The Filipino people suffer a new worsened level of national oppression under the US-Marcos regime. With president Ferdinand Marcos Jr as puppet, US imperialism is tightening its stranglehold on the Philippines. US imperialism is exploiting the Philippines even more intensely to prepare and provoke war against rival China, to ravage the Philippine’s wealth, and fuel fascist repression against the people. The Filipino people must unite firmly to resist imperialist war and plunder, and save the country from sure disaster and deeper suffering.

Marcos will deliver his fifth state of the nation address (SONA) amid a worsening economic crisis and fascism. He will face his equally corrupt, greedy, and satiated dynasties that represent the ruling classes. Their applause will drown out the grievances of the toiling masses in the countryside and cities, who suffer untold hardship as prices of oil, food, and other basic goods soar. Their standard of living is collapsing despite day-long backbreaking labor, while the big comprador bourgeoisie, landlords, and bureaucrat capitalists gorge themselves on wealth.

Marcos has become one of the most obedient puppets of US imperialism in the country’s semicolonial history. He has exposed the country to the proliferation of US military forces. He has allowed their military bases, the deployment of thousands of American troops, the stockpiling of their missiles, drones, and other war matériel, and their continuous use of the country for war rehearsals.

Marcos brags of the country’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea, but condones the huge US aircraft carriers and naval vessels, together with Japan’s military forces, docked in the country’s seas. He did not flinch when the US flew a Tomahawk missile from Leyte to Nueva Ecija, endangering the lives of millions of Filipinos in its path. The US is to conduct more than 500 operations in the Philippines, which will expand the use of civilian facilities for military purposes, including Cagayan de Oro and Cebu ports, a Davao oil depot, and an airfield at Sangley Point in Cavite. Claims that these are for “humanitarian and disaster response” are a sham when no aid reached the victims after several disasters. Instead, wherever and whenever military exercises are held, these inflict suffering on the masses.

Like his master, Defense Sec. Gilbert Teodoro and officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) blindly allow themselves to be used by US militarism in Asia, in pursuit of the strategy of “encircling” and “containing” China. On US prodding, Teodoro is now aggressively pushing for alloting four percent of GDP, equivalent to ₱1.17 trillion, to military spending, after the AFP budget was raised by 12% in 2026. Marcos’ militarist budget is not for defending the country, but for preparing for US imperialist wars.

Steps are being rushed to begin operations at the 1,620-hectare Pax Silica US “economic security zone” (ESZ) in New Clark City in Tarlac and Pampanga. Marcos eagerly awaits the arrival in November of the madman US president Donald Trump to inaugurate the ESZ. The plan is to transfer there American-owned “data centers,” many of which are being shut down in the US for consuming too much water and electricity, straining limited resources of surrounding communities. Arms factories are also being planned, in partnership with the Israeli companies that are behind the genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and US wars in the Middle East.

US State Sec. Marco Rubio will visit the country this week, another step in the US push to tighten its grip on the country and impose its will in different parts of the world. This comes after the US resumed bombing Iran in an effort to force it to submit to US dictates over the country’s oil wealth. Rubio recently announced that the US will push for dismantling the International Criminal Court, to strip it of its power to prosecute, arrest, and try US and Israeli officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Prodded by US military advisers, the Marcos regime continues to intensify fascist attacks and deception against the people. Anyone resisting to defend national freedom against US imperialism is branded a “terrorist” to justify armed repression and the use of state terror. It repeatedly boasts of having “crushed” the New People’s Army (NPA) in various provinces. This aims to terrorize the people and entice foreign mining, plantation, and “renewable energy” companies to plunder the country’s resources. While declaring areas “insurgency-free,” AFP military operations continue relentlessly in NPA guerrilla fronts across the country, in a bid to stop the expansion and deepening roots of the NPA among the broad masses in the countryside.

The Filipino people most urgently need to unite against imperialist war and plunder, and against the Marcos regime’s total surrender of the country’s sovereignty. The security and future of the entire nation are at stake in these struggles. US imperialism must not be allowed to succeed in its treacherous scheme to ignite war, drag the Philippines, and seize the country’s land and wealth for its Pax Silica.

The struggle against imperialist war and plunder is part of the national-democratic struggle. The organized strength of the people must be expanded and strengthened even further against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. Under the leadership of the Party, armed struggle and all forms of struggle will certainly advance to promote the national and democratic aspirations of the people. However long and difficult the road, people’s war is the only path to the liberation of the country.