The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Australian Defense Force (ADF) have turned Nueva Ecija into a testing ground for inter-imperialist war. On August 29, as part of Exercise Amphibious Land Operation (Alon) 2025, the two reactionary armies staged live-fire drills at Fort Magsaysay. The combined troops deployed ATMOS self-propelled artillery, M777A2 howitzers, Javelin anti-tank missile systems while fighter jets coordinated overhead maneuvers to simulate a full-on siege.
In total, more than 3,600 troops from the Philippines, Australia, the United States and Canada are participating in these operations, concentrated in the joint areas of AFP Northern and Western Luzon Commands. Alon 2025 is Australia’s largest troop deployment to Southeast Asia since the East Timorese crisis of 1999 where Australia once sent its forces to secure US interests in the region.
Operation Alon 2025 lays bare the same role Australia played in East Timor: the armed lackey of US imperialism. By deploying heavy artillery, armored vehicles, and air power in parts of Luzon and Palawan, Australia is drilling for large-scale combat aimed at securing US hegemony in the South China Sea.
Australia has never acted independently in situations of war. From Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, the reactionary Australian state has fatefully dispatched thousands of its troops to kill and die in US wars of conquest. The basing of US Marines in Darwin since 2012, the constant rotation of American bomber jets and warships through Australian ports and airstrips, and Canberra’s signing of military agreements with the Marcos Jr. regime, and other US client states in Southeast Asia – all prove that Australia is nothing more than a forward garrison of the US war machine.
On the other hand, the US-Marcos regime has treacherously allowed the country to be transformed into a battleground for inter-imperialist conflict. While the 2007 PH-Australia Status of Visiting Forces Agreement already legalizes the continued presence of Australian troops in the Philippines, the Marcos Jr. regime seeks to further upgrade military ties with Australia with another planned defense agreement meant to allow construction of military infrastructure in the country. Just as the VFA and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the US opened the Philippines to occupation by US military troops, this agreement violates national sovereignty and brings the country one step closer to an armed confrontation with China.
Operation Alon 2025 is but a direct manifestation of these lopsided military deals: Australian warships sailing Philippine seas, Australian fighter jets bombing Philippine ranges, and Australian ground troops drilling alongside US Marines to sharpen their claws for the next inter-imperialist war.
NDFP-Australia denounces Operation Alon 2025 as another war rehearsal meant to provoke further conflict in the South China Sea. These joint military drills are a blatant display of Australia’s role as the armed lackey of US imperialism, wagging its tail at the bidding of its imperialist master. The US-Marcos regime, eager to prove its loyalty to Washington is equally complicit in this treachery. He has sold the country’s sovereignty by allowing more foreign troops to operate, to deploy war materiel, and construct military infrastructure on Philippine soil.
Operation Alon comes at a time of already heightened tensions. Each drill in Palawan and Northern Luzon pushes the Philippines deeper into the frontlines of US confrontation with China. Each live-fire exercise escalates the risk that Filipino communities will pay the price of conflict. And each agreement signed by the Marcos Jr. regime further undermines Philippine sovereignty.
By integrating its troops, ships, and aircraft into joint operations with the US and the AFP, Australia ensures that it will be an active participant in any coming war in the region. It acts as the deputy sheriff of the US protecting its interests in the Pacific and neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines by providing the muscle to reinforce Washington’s war campaign under the guise of “defense cooperation.”
But the only real defense of the Filipino people’s interests can only be found in the struggle for national and social liberation. When imperialists prepare for inter-imperialist war, the answer of the oppressed and exploited must be the waging of revolutionary war that will smash the chains of domination, defend national sovereignty, and seize political power.
We call on Filipino workers, peasants, migrants, and youth both in Australia and at home to oppose these war games, reject the military agreements that allow them, and join the national democratic revolution in the Philippine countryside!
Down with Operation Alon 2025!
Down with US imperialism and its Australian lackey!
Long live the struggle of the Filipino people for national and social liberation!
Roja Lumaban
NDFP Australia
