EDCA
US military presence in the Philippines, 2016 to April 2023
April 20, 2023
Despite the Duterte administration’s posturing against the US in 2016, the global superpower has essentially maintained a huge military presence in the Philippines until today. Cumulatively, from 2016 to April 2023, there have been a total of 227 drills: 68 sea-related, 116 air-related and 143 land-related. US troops are also currently located in 9 EDCA […]
US troops double to record high in Balikatan 2023
April 3, 2023
The number of US troops involved in the Baliktan 2023 military exercises has doubled compared to previous years. This is because the Philippines remains strategically important for the US’ geopolitical dominance in the Indo-Pacific – as a center of global trade and commerce and amid China aggression in the West Philippine Sea. But this will not necessarily benefit the Philippines as it becomes another base for US hegemony and militarism.
Then and now: US economic intervention in the Philippines
November 14, 2016
During the swearing-in of the new United States (US) ambassador to the Philippines in early November, US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that the “logic” of the “indelible” US-Philippine alliance is “as compelling today as [it has] ever been”. Newly sworn-in US ambassador Sung Kim in turn highlighted the “ironclad” Mutual Defense Treaty, the […]
EDCA: Overstating economic gains
June 20, 2014
Government is clearly exaggerating the supposed economic gains from EDCA while concealing the fact that negotiators gave too many unjustifiable perks to the US
