The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) calls on the Filipino people to reject the plans of the US Coast Guard to deploy the USS Stratton in the South China Sea purportedly to give “protection” to the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and other countries in the region.

The “protection” plan of the US government is direct military intervention in the internal affairs of the country. The US is capitalizing on the widespread outrage of the Filipino people over the June 9 incident near the Recto Bank where a fishing boat with Filipino crewmen sank after colliding with a Chinese fishing vessel. The self-serving aim of the US is to deploy its own warships and sea vessels in our seas.

The Filipino people must continue to assert the country’s national independence and territorial integrity. They must denounce Chinese intrusions into Philippine territorial waters, but at the same time, reject the hypocritical plan of the US to deploy its military forces as “protection.”

The US acts like a colonial overlord by promoting the policy that the country needs US “protection” to defend its sovereignty. It is a grave insult on the freedom-loving Filipinos. The country’s non-independence and neocolonial state is further being reinforced if the US pushes through with this plan with the Duterte regime’s acquiescence.

The deployment of more and more air craft carriers, warships and cutters in the South China Sea and Philippine seas is part of US imperialism’s geopolitical strategy of gaining firm control of the trade routes, in line with its aim of gaining an advantage over China. It is hypocritically invoking the so-called “freedom of navigation” to ensure that the trade lanes are under its control, and nobody else’s.

The US is using the Philippines as an outpost and launching pad for its military strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. It has been building up its military presence by conducting so-called war exercises in the Philippines and other countries. The buildup of US military presence is raising the temperature of military tensions with China and increasing the risk of an outbreak of a war.

Duterte and his military and security officials are displaying outright slavishness to the imperialist powers by allowing both the US and China to build up their military strength in the South China Sea as well within the territorial waters of the Philippines. They must be strongly denounced for their treachery and utter failure to defend Philippine sovereignty.