The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the Marcos regime and its armed forces, the US and Japanese military forces for holding the so-called Doshin-Bayanihan 2024 military exercises at the Ebuen Air Base in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu starting last October 2, which will end on October 7.

These military exercises form part of the continued worsening of imperialist military intervention in the country by the US and its allied powers. These blatantly disregard the country’s national sovereignty and further pulls the country into the vortex of rising inter-imperialist conflict.

The US and Japan aim to use the country as foothold for their imperialist power projection operations, particularly directed against their imperialist rival China. Upon US prodding, Japan has been increasing defense spending to build up its military forces and increase its maritime activities in the West Philippine Sea. Japanese military intervention in the Philippines is bound to worsen if the Philippine Senate ratifies the Reciprocal Access Agreement with Japan.

The Party condemns the use of “humanitarian assistance and disaster response” as pretext for these military exercises which serve the singular purpose of further extending and strengthening the presence of US and Japanese military forces in the Philippines.

The US has been using these so-called humanitarian assistance and disaster response as cover to impose its military presence in the Philippines and normalize their presence in the country. Last August, hundreds of US and South Korean military troops maintained their presence for several weeks in Legazpi City, purportedly to conduct community service.

In the Batanes islands, which is in close proximity to Taiwan, American soldiers constructed a warehouse supposedly to store “humanitarian supplies.” This was undertaken alongside the dredging of the civilian port in Batanes. This will allow the regular docking of large US warships in the islands, which is aimed at further provoking armed tensions with China.

The Party maintains that humanitarian assistance should not be militarized nor used as pretext for foreign military intervention. There are numerous local and international civilian humanitarian agencies, both state and non-state, that instead should be strengthened to deliver the necessary response and aid to disaster areas.