The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Cagayan Valley stands in solidarity with all anti-imperialist forces and peoples across nations in condemning the escalation of US-Israel’s war of aggression against Iran. We assert the sovereignty of all nations and respect for human rights and international law. In Cagayan Valley, we assert our resistance to hosting EDCA sites and using our territory as launching pad and our people as cannon fodder for US imperialist wars.

The escalation of US-Israel’s imperialist aggression against Iran through military strikes that blasted anew last February 28 prompted Iran to retaliate to defend its people and sovereignty. Iran now targets U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The recent bombings and attacks by the US and Israel are clear violations of international law and a blatant assault on Iran’s sovereignty. US and Israel justify their aggression by invoking allegations that Iran is building up its nuclear weapon which even the United Nations found no evidence on this. While negotiations are in progress, the attack on Iran was treacherously carried out. The open rhetoric by US president Trump of pursuing “regime change” reveals its ulterior motive to seize the oil resources and strengthen its imperialist domination in the Middle East.

It is clear that the lives and livelihood of the people destroyed in the Middle East are not at all the concern of the imperialist US and its puppet Zionist state of Israel. To date, civilian casualties, killed and injured have surged to thousands not just in Iran, but also in Gulf states hosting US military bases. In the midst of US warmongering, the hosting of US military bases and personnel clearly brings danger and suffering to the people in these countries.

This escalation of US’ war on Iran is the latest iteration of US imperialist aggression and underscores the immediate danger of the Philippines in hosting US military bases, personnel, missiles and other war materiel amid rising tension between the US and China. As the US increases its military presence in the Philippines, just as it does in the Middle East and other countries, the Filipino people become more and more subject to the whims and whimsies of the US, its ruling regimes and their wars.

To the US, the Philippines is nothing more than an unsinkable aircraft carrier. With the help and servitude of the Marcos Jr. regime and previous regimes, the US is using the Philippines as part of its “first island chain” of allies and puppets to contain its imperialist rival, China. From 2022, Marcos Jr had already signed several military agreements with US and their allies that solidify the legality of their military presence and unlimited access to the Philippine’s territorial waters, land, airspace and even its resources. Among these agreements is the expansion of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) signed in February 2023, augmenting nine strategic US military sites, which include the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela and Palawan.

Through these agreements, the US recently confirmed and announced the expansion of its rotational forces in the Philippines as well as deploying other war materiel, including missile systems capable of launching attacks against China from the Philippines. The 500 joint military activities announced for 2026 are yet additional aggressive moves of the US to incite China and set the stage for waging an imperialist war in the Asia-Pacific to re-assert its hegemony in the region.

The ongoing war between US-Israel and Iran highlights the risk of hosting three EDCA sites and other military facilities in Cagayan Valley. These are in Naval Base Camilo Osias in Sta. Ana, Cagayan; Cagayan North International Airport in Lal-lo, Cagayan and in Camp Melchor de la Cruz in Gamu, Isabela. Note that these EDCA sites in the region were set up clearly on the pretext of “China’s threat.” And since 2018, US troops had already been building up military facilities in Mavulis Island in Batanes. In this northernmost island of the Philippines, a naval outpost, ports and a helipad were built by US. Also in Cagayan province, the US troops utilize facilities of the AFP in the islands of Calayan and Fuga.

The Cagayan Valley region in the Philippines plays an important role to this US military build-up in the Asia-Pacific with its geographic closeness to mainland China and Taiwan. The Luzon Strait, a part of Cagayan territorial waters that connects the Philippines and Taiwan is a critical trade and military route.

This explains the establishment of three EDCA sites in the region, the continuous stationing of military forces that carry out constant military exercises and deploying powerful war materiel and setting up of military facilities on the northernmost part of Luzon, that serve as launching pad for its imminent war against China.

In 2024, the Typhon missile launcher which was first stationed at Laoag Airport in Ilocos Norte was most likely transferred at the Bashi Channel, part of the Luzon Strait that connects Mavulis Island and the Orchid Island of Taiwan. The Bashi Channel serves as an important route for US ships passing from the Pacific Ocean to the South China Sea. Also installed in Bashi Channel are military communication systems linking up South Asia to other nations. The NMESIS anti-ship missile launchers were also stationed in Cagayan North International Airport, at Batan Island and other islands of Batanes.

Upon US orders, the AFP ordered the Northern Luzon Command to intensify and expand its operations beyond the Philippines northernmost island purportedly to prepare “for possible invasion of Taiwan.” The US 3rd Marine Expeditionary Forces and the Joint US-Philippines Military Advisory Group lead these military operations.

Alongside these EDCA sites, imperialist US launches Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) missions to cover the threat these military bases inflict on the people. In Batanes, the US and AFP erected a HADR warehouse in Itbayat town.

But the serious threats these US military bases and their war exercises cannot be appeased by these devious “humanitarian” missions. The joint military exercises conducted in different parts of Cagayan Valley region since 2021 had caused severe and widespread alarm and distress on the people. The swarming of thousands of foreign troops, hundreds of aircrafts, warships and missile launchers conducting live fire exercises and combat maneuvers terrorized and traumatized communities. Residents in Batanes in 2023 even went into panic-buying when they heard news that US soldiers are arriving. Jet fighters manuevering just overhead sent school children crying in panic and scampering home. Loud roar of war planes and live fire caused havoc not only on people but also on animals. The people really believed that those military drills are proceeding to a real war.

The people’s livelihood was gravely affected especially on communities of Claveria, Aparri, Gattaran, Sto. Niño, Baggao, Lasam, Calayan Island, Sta. Ana and Batanes where Balikatan exercises were conducted. They were prohibited to fish as No Sail Zones on the seas were flagged and could not tend to their farms and pastures as these were also used as grounds for war exercises.

Not only do these cause grave disruption and harm to the livelihoods of the people of Cagayan Valley, but also make the region a primary target of attack and put the people at risk of becoming ‘collaterals’ of imperialist US military aggression and war-mongering. In fact, the US and the AFP had been actively recruiting even on elderly and had enlisted more than a hundred of Ivatan tribe in Batanes as army reservists who underwent training, ostensibly to face China’s bombs and missiles in time of war.

The continuous and escalating US aggression against nations’ sovereignty around the world and its aftermath shows that the hosting of US bases in the Philippines is a real risk to Filipino lives. As the US has shown its disregard for the lives lost in its semicolonies and client states, it is the peoples’ task to ensure that their country does not get dragged into the US’ wars.

The people of Cagayan Valley had expressed their vehement rejection on the establishment of EDCA sites and conducting war exercises in the region. We must reverberate this rejection and make the Marcos regime accountable for its gross subservience to the US and dragging the Filipino people to its imperialist wars.

NDFP-CV calls on the people of Cagayan Valley to broaden and strengthen our unity and join the rest of the Filipino people to intensify the all-out campaigns to reject US military presence in the Philippines, to end Balikatan and other military exercises and to abbrogate EDCA. We encourage and support all efforts to build an anti-imperialist movement to condemn the US for its brutal wars of aggression around the world and to ensure that the region and the whole of Philippine territory won’t be used in any of US’ war-mongering.

We must all stand in defense of Philippine sovereignty and against US imperialist wars in all corners of the world. Most of all, let us persist in advancing our people’s democratic revolution towards victory that would ultimately liberate us from the yoke of imperialism.

US out of the Philippines!

No to US imperialist wars!

US imperialist, number 1 terrorist!

Wage revolutionary war for national liberation!