Led by Migrante and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Filipino migrants staged protests across various host countries to express their rejection of “Filipino-American Friendship Day” on July 4.
Groups held protests at the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong and at the JR Shinjuku Station East Exit in Tokyo, Japan. Meanwhile, Bayan Aotearoa (New Zealand) joined local protests against US imperialism alongside the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa and allied groups at the US Consulate in New Zealand. In Australia, the Bayan local chapter joined in the Global Anti-US Imperialist Rally organized by Lasnet Solidarity Network and Pine Gap at the State Library in Naarm, Melbourne.
The so-called “US-Philippine Friendship Day” commemorates the false independence granted by the US in 1946. To this day, the Philippines remains under the semicolonial rule of the US.
US dominance spans the economy, not just the military sphere, Bayan-Aotearoa NZ said. For decades, US imperialism has maintained the Philippines as an exporter of cheap labor and raw materials while miring the country in debt and neoliberal policies. It has plundered forest resources, grabbed lands, and plunged the people into poverty and forced migration.
“This is the true legacy of 80 years of so-called US-Philippines ‘friendship.’ It is a legacy of imperialist exploitation, military dominance, and national oppression, fitting for their massive military-industrial complex,” Eugene Velasco, spokesperson for Bayan-Aotearoa NZ, said.
“Filipinos in Hong Kong stand as one with our compatriots in the Philippines in calling to condemn US imperialist control over the Philippines and other countries in the Asia-Pacific… The true nature and reason why the US-Trump government is so eager to build structures, especially new bases in the Philippines, must be exposed,” Bayan-Hong Kong said in a statement.
