The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas (NDF-EV) called this year’s iteration of the Balikatan war exercises as heartless and insensitive to the plight of the Filipino masses, who are suffering under a global oil crisis brought about by US imperialist aggression in Iran. The group issued the statement as joint military activities among US and Philippine fascist troops begin today in Tacloban City and elsewhere in the country, which aim to foment war in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Spokespersons for the 8th Infantry Division Col. Rico Amaro and Lt. Col. Michael Villanueva have the gall to downplay the extravagance of what they themselves declared as ‘the largest Balikatan,’ by claiming that the US Armed Forces supplied their own jet fuel for their activities,” said NDF-EV spokesperson Ka Celine Manlimbasog. “Whether or not this is true, the puppet Marcos regime will nonetheless spend taxpayers’ money for the logistics and operational expenses of these needless war exercises, instead of allocating it to financial aid and other more useful measures to ease the people’s economic hardships.”

Manlimbasog also condemned the use of the Daniel Z. Romualdez airport, a civilian facility, by approximately 120 combined troops for the Tacloban leg of the Balikatan. “It further proves that Marcos is making the entire country serve as a forward base for the operations of the US military. The 8th ID and Marcos are traitors to the Filipino people for letting this happen.” She likened this to the “dual use” of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu Lapu City as an EDCA site, the conduct of the recently concluded Wartime Repair and Maintenance Exercise or SWARMEX at the Cebu South Port, and the offloading of US military assets at the Cagayan de Oro Port.

“No one believes the US-Marcos regime’s oft-repeated lie that the war games serve to humanitarian assistance or disaster response. The worsening US military interventionism puts a clear target on the back of the Philippines, civilians included, against the enemies of the number one terrorist-imperialist in the world. It is wishful thinking that the country will not be dragged into the war that the US is inciting against rival China, which will be most detrimental to ordinary Filipinos who do not want conflict in the first place,” she reiterated.

She added that even without the outbreak of war, the presence and operations of US troops in the country are affecting the people’s livelihood. For instance, fisherfolk in Barangay 88 Costa Brava San Jose in Tacloban expressed fear of being driven away from their usual fishing grounds by the coast guard as soon as the Balikatan begins. “Surely they have heard about the experience of their fellow fisherfolk in Ilocos and Cagayan during Balikatan 2024, where `fishing bans’ were imposed, their communities were disturbed, and civilians were forced to participate as carriers of wounded American soldiers. This adds further strain to the economic difficulties of the Filipino masses.”

The NDF-EV strongly urged for an end to the Balikatan war exercises and to US interventionism in the country. “The Filipino people must wage protest actions for the duration of the war games, drive the US troops out of their communities, and assert their sovereignty instead of forever playing second fiddle to the terrorist and parasitic US imperialist. They must take inspiration from the people of Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine and other anti-imperialist peoples and assert a national economy and foreign policy that serves the Filipino people and not the few elite. This can be achieved by bringing the people’s democratic revolution to complete victory,” Manlimbasog ended.