Progressive groups raise alarm over Balikatan missile drills

Missiles, training activities, and aid operations continue across the country under the 41st iteration of the Balikatan Exercises with the United States, but progressive groups have raised concerns over national security and civilian safety.

Marking the 75th anniversary of the Mutual Defense Treaty, the exercises involve partner nations including Japan, France, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, carrying out joint operations across land, sea, air, cyber, and space domains.

On May 5, a US Tomahawk missile was launched from Tacloban City airport and successfully struck its target zone in Laur.

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio criticized the launch, saying the Marcos administration was turning the country into a “launchpad for aggression.”

“It is not within the country’s scope to attack mainland China in protecting the West Philippine Sea, but only in the interest of imperialist US,” Tinio said.

“Firing a Tomahawk from Tacloban and striking a target in Laur, Nueva Ecija, effectively turns our towns and critical infrastructure into a live-fire range and a forward platform for war. It puts ordinary Filipinos at risk and makes our country a more likely target in any conflict,” he added.

Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM) echoed the concern, citing the nine non-permanent US facilities under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The group said these sites could become prime targets “should war take place between the US and China.”

“The missile launch shows just how easily the US can trample on Philippine sovereignty, and just how much a puppet the Marcos administration is to US imperialism,” activist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) said in an Instagram post.

Current EDCA sites are located in Santa Ana and Lal-lo in Cagayan; Isabela; Nueva Ecija; Pampanga; Cebu; Cagayan de Oro; and Puerto Princesa and Balabac Island in Palawan.

Since the start of the Iran war, 228 targets at US bases across the Middle East have reportedly been damaged by Iranian forces, according to a report by The Washington Post

.

Amid criticism over militarization, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said on May 6 that the Balikatan exercises remain under civilian authority.

“The claims of militarization are totally misplaced at this day and age. When we are open and transparent with the exercises, it's for national security. It’s for everybody to see and to comment on,” Teodoro said.

On May 3, 734 fisherfolk affected by temporary no-sail measures during the exercises received financial and food assistance from the Department of National Defense, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources

, and the provincial government.

China previously warned President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to “stop playing with fire” after he said the Philippines may be drawn into a conflict between the US and China in the Taiwan Strait.