The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemned the May 19 start of the Kasangga 2025-01 war games between soldiers of the Philippines and Australia. This was officially opened in a program at Camp Evangelista, Barangay Patag, Cagayan de Oro City.

At least 90 Australian Army 1st Combat Engineer Regiment soldiers and 140 Philippine Army soldiers are participating in the war games. The military activities are being conducted at Camp Kibaritan, Kalilangan, Bukidnon and will last until June 24.

Party chief information officer Marco Valbuena said the ongoing war games “must be condemned because these blatantly tramples on the country’s sovereignty and violates the foreign policy principle that rejects war.”

Valbuena said that the war games are being conducted with foreign Australian troops in accordance with the Indo-Pacific Strategy of imperialist US. The Australian military follows the US. The country is part of the military alliance AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States) formed by the US to strengthen its military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

In line with this strategy, the US and its allied countries are strengthening their presence in the Asia-Pacific to counter the growing military and economic influence of China in the region. “It is using the Philippines to stoke military tensions in the region, heightening the possibility of dragging the country into a war instigated by the US against China,” Valbuena said.

He added that, war has not yet occurred but the war games are already harming the Filipino people. These war games disrupt peace and order in communities, especially in rural areas. Likewise, these adversely affect their daily livelihood and even the environment, especially when bombs are actually being exploded.

The Kasangga war games were held just weeks after the large-scale Balikatan 2025-40 war games, which took place from April 21 to May 9. Thousands of troops from the US, Australia, Japan, and the Philippines participated. The Salaknib 2025 Phase 2 involving thousands of American troops is also set to be launched in the last weeks of May.

“This exposes the Filipino people to danger in exchange for the favors that the Marcos regime receives from its foreign masters. The continued subservience of the Philippines to US imperialism in military, economic, political, cultural, and foreign relations is a blatant trampling of Philippine freedom,” Valbuena also said.