Vol. VI, No. 16 – August 31, 2024
Amid widespread hunger and poverty, Department of Defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro announced the plan for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to buy missiles and 40 jet fighters at the cost of US$7.11 billion. Teodoro announced the plan after a Congressional hearing related to the 2025 budget. The fighters will be purchased from American arms companies and their subsidiaries in other countries such as South Korea.
Teodoro justified that the jet fighters will be used for “territorial defense.” However, the AFP’s attack planes and helicopters are used mainly in its ‘counterinsurgency’ campaign against the revolutionary movement and people resisting in the countryside, and not in the West Philippine Sea. These soon-to-be purchased jet fighters will certainly be for this use as well.
Under the Marcos Jr. regime alone, at least 60 cases of bombing, shelling and strafing were recorded from July 2022 to June 2024, including 32 incidents of aerial bombing. FA-50s and Super Tucanos were frequently used, as well as Agusta Westland AW109 and T129 ATAK- helicopters. The highest number of bombings and strafing was recorded in Bukidnon, followed by Northern Samar, Abra, Kalinga, Cagayan and Aurora. There were also bombings in Oriental Mindoro, Western Samar, Misamis Oriental, Apayao, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Quezon and Camarines Sur, Nueva Vizcaya, Agusan del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Negros Oriental, Masbate and Samar.
These aerial attacks were accompanied by extensive and sustained combat operations by the Philippine Army, often with artillery shelling. During these operations, soldiers commit widespread violations of civilian rights such as zoning, economic and food blockades, limiting mobility, surveillance, harassment and threats, arrests and detentions, and even killings. In contrast, the reactionary Marcos government continues to slash funding for social services.
The international poverty line is set at $2.15 per person per day using 2017 prices. This means that anyone living on less than $2.15 a day is in extreme poverty. In order to hide the reality of mass poverty in the country, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) pegged the poverty threshold for a family with five members to PhP13,873 or US$246.70 per month to meet their minimum basic food and non-food needs in 2023. This is only equivalent to PhP92.5 or US$1.64 per person per day.
In the midst of mass poverty, hunger, and dire lack of needed funds for health, education and other social services, the PhP400 billion allocation to buy warplanes and missiles is simply scandalous!
Additionally, the Filipino people must vigorously oppose the US-Marcos regime’s plan to have US naval vessels escort Philippine maritime patrols in the West Philippine Sea. Such plans increase by severalfold the risks of an armed conflict flaring up between the US and China, in which the Philippines will be caught right in the middle of the clash of superpowers.
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) opposes China’s exaggerated claims over the South China Sea that cover the Philippine exclusive economic zone, and call on it to exercise restraint in asserting claims that contravene the UNCLOS. These must be settled through open dialogue, negotiations or arbitration.
The Filipino people must be circumspect and repudiate the malicious claims perpetrated by the Marcos regime and its war-obsessed military officers. The Filipino people must criticize and denounce the Marcos government for carrying out equally provocative actions in the West Philippine Sea, mostly prodded by the US, that aim to invite hostile reactions.
