National-democratic groups led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) marched toward the US Embassy in Manila on Saturday, July 4, to protest the 80th “Fil-Am Friendship Day”. The groups asserted that US imperialism is not a true friend, but the primary enemy of the Filipino people.

The protesters were blocked by police barricades in Kalaw Avenue to prevent them from getting close to the embassy. They held their program there instead.

During the program, the KMU strongly condemned the unequal relations between the two countries. The group declared that for Filipino workers, the vaunted “friendship” between the two nations is pure madness and absurdity. The group emphasized that the only things this “friendship” has brought are suffering, the plunder of natural resources, the intensification of worker exploitation, and dragging the entire populace into imperialist wars.

In an official statement, Bayan slammed the tightening control of the US over the country.

“The relationship between US imperialism and the Philippines was forged by colonial conquest, maintained by neocolonial domination, and is now being deepened by worsening forms of economic plunder and military intervention,” the alliance said.

It added that since the granting of the sham “flag independence” in 1946, the US has deceptively presented itself as the country’s closest ally while ensuring that the local economy remains backward and dependent on foreign capital and goods. Along with plundering the country’s natural resources, the US also uses the national territory as a strategic outpost for its geopolitical interests in the region.

“At present, this lopsided relationship (between the US and the Philippines) has entered a dangerous new phase amid the intensifying conflict between the US and China, where the Philippines is becoming more critical than ever to the military and economic agenda and strategy of US imperialism in Asia,” Bayan warned.

The groups demanded the immediate expulsion of American troops, the cessation of foreign military exercises, the dismantling of EDCA sites, and the scrapping of initiatives such as the Luzon Economic Corridor and Pax Silica. They said that genuine freedom can only be achieved through the implementation of an active, independent, and peaceful foreign policy, alongside national industrialization and genuine land reform.