Rep. Arlene Brosas of the Gabriela Women’s Party forwarded a resolution in the Lower House on July 9 for Congress to investigate the presence of the Typhon Mid-range Capability (MRC) missile system in Ilocos Norte and its implication on national sovereignty and regional security in Asia. The location of the said offensive weapon was first kept a secret before it was founf at the civilian airport of Laoag in Ilocos Norte, a region where no “EDCA site” is located.

The said missile system has been used in US war games in the Philippines since April. The deployment of this missile system and the war games in which it has been used are all maneuvers to provoke China. This deepens Philippine involvement into the conflict between the two imperialist powers.

The Typhom MRC has the capacity to launch Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles capable of flying up to 1,000 kilometers. The US has been manufacturing this weapon only since 2019, after it withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a nuclear treaty between the US and the then USSR signed during the Cold War.

The presence of Typhoon MRC in the Philippines is worrying many countries and is generating more tension in the Asian region. China called its positioning in the northern part of the Philippines a “provocation” and warned that it increases the risk of “misjudgments and miscalculations.”

Also, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin used it as an reason to once again produce intermediate and shorter-range nuclear-capable missiles.

Thus, it puts in jeopardy the neutral status of the Philippines in international conflicts, the resolution said.