The Communist Party of the Philippines strongly denounces the recent US congressional proposal that seeks to sell to Taiwan US military bases in the Philippines under the guise of “funding infrastructure improvements” of US facilities in so-called Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites.

This plan is a brazen affront on Philippine national sovereignty and will make the presence of US military sites in the Philippines a double slap on the face of freedom-loving Filipino people. Under the EDCA, American military forces enjoy extra-territorial rights in the Philippines; now they want to extend those rights by seeking to sell these rights to Taiwan.

This plan further exposes the true intent behind the establishment of US military facilities in the Philippines, that is, to serve as strategic military bases in pursuit of US hegemonic ambitions in the region, against the continuing rise in the economic and military power of its imperialist rival China, packaged as “defense of Taiwan.” This further unmasks the big lie that these are meant to “help defend the Philippines.”

This plan furthers US plans to militarize the region and renders the Philippines a pawn in US plans to provoke an armed conflict China, and a staging ground for US military aggression. Even now, the US has deployed the giant USS Nimitz aircraft carrier along with an armada of warships in the South China Sea, specifically in the shared fishing grounds of the Scarborrough Shoal, to carry out naval maneuvers with Chinese vessels in the area.

The Filipino people must vigorously oppose this US scheme and hold the Marcos puppet regime accountable for gross violations of Philippine sovereignty. They must denounce the puppet Marcos regime for aligning with US imperialist interests and allowing it to expand the number of its military bases and secret locations, maintain a permanent presence of troops, deploy strategic weapons, and conduct non-stop war exercises, all in violation of Philippine national sovereignty.

By kowtowing to US geopolitical interests, the puppet Marcos regime is fostering animosity and armed conflicts in the region. The Filipino people must demand the removal of all US military bases, call for upholding an independent foreign policy, and pursuing peace and dialogue to resolve conflicts in the region.