If any Filipino died as a result of China’s willful actions, Marcos Jr. said on May 31, the Philippines would consider it as close to “an act of war” and respond accordingly.
Marcos Jr. was speaking at a security forum in Singapore attended by defence chiefs from around the world. His speech focused on the “rules based order” and ASEAN centrality”, which means non-alignment to global powers in order to “maintain peace” in the region conducive to development.
Marcos Jr’s bold statement is very dangerous. This posture depends mainly on the Philippines and U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty whose Terms are filled with strategic ambiguity. Moreover, recent events smacks of stoking confrontation against China.
The recently concluded Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) military exercises 2024 was the most expansive joint military exercises involving 16,000 members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and U.S. military. For the first time, the U.S. deployed its most advanced Typhon weapons system capable of launching intermediate-range missiles like Tomahawk and SM6 missiles, which can hit targets in China.
The drills included contingents from Australia and the French Navy. A multilateral maritime exercise including the Philippine Navy, U.S. Navy and French Navy in the Philippine exclusive ecomic zone (EEZ) was conducted. The exercises took place in Luzon and Palawan facing Taiwan and the South China Sea.
In a related development, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) through its information officer Marco Balbuena declared that: “(Filipinos) should stand in promoting amicable relations and peaceful co-existence with China, condemn the Marcos government in adopting war as instrument of national policy and its failure to advance a peaceful resolution to conflicts with China.”
The CPP calls on the Filipino people to intensify struggles against U.S. domination of the Philippines, military intervention and warmongering.
The Party calls on all sectors to support the armed struggle of the New People’s Army against the fascist tentacles of U.S. imperialism, used by the U.S. in its warmongering. The advance of armed struggle against the U.S. puppet troops is an important contribution in the struggle of preventing the conflagration of an inter-imperialist war. The CPP also declared that, “China should likewise make a clear-cut declaration that it has no intention of using armed force against the Philippines.”
