In a neocolonial society such as what the Filipinos have, the defense of sovereignty is so utterly bastardized that it is used to justify offering the country to the US as proxy in its imperialist wars and provocations.

The Marcos Jr puppet regime is in a mad rush to serve the US interest of containing its rival China at the expense of the Filipino people. For 2026, Marcos regime alloted Php 430.9 billion defense budget, a landmark amount marking the third consecutive year of double-digit growth in military spending. It is a 14 percent increase from the 2025 allocation, and one-and-a-half times larger than the Php278.1 billion level in 2024. With such funding, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is expected to improve readiness to operate with “allies” in the so-called Indo-Pacific region.

“Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept”

In 2024, the US-Marcos Jr regime, through its Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, vowed to smash the revolutionary movement by the year’s end. It came with the announcement that the AFP would shift its operations from internal to external defense based on what it called the “Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept” which, supposedly aims to “guarantee Filipino corporations and foreigners permitted by the Philippines to peacefully carry out exploration and exploitation in all natural resources within the exclusive economic zone (of the Philippines) and other areas within (its) jurisdiction.” The concept, according to Ang Bayan’s February 2024 article, was lifted straight from the US military’s Archipelagic Defense Strategy (ADS).

In reality, ADS intends to “prevent Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific Theater of Operations emphasizing on what it calls the ‘First Island Chain’.” The ADS, according to the same article, aims to neutralize, suppress, and eliminate the capability of the “enemy” that is China to launch aggression in the region. Hence, the Marcos regime’s shot at establishing a network of US bases, building of facilities for war materiel such as missiles—both publicly or privately.

ADS was preceded by the US-RP Bilateral Defense Guidelines signed in May 2023. Included in this is a provision for the Philippines to “coordinate closely [with the US on] defense budget planning [to] identify priority defense platforms and force packages over the next five years to bolster our combined capabilities and capacity.”

Using Filipino money

Ironically, for a “strategy” that mainly serves US war provocations in the region, its so-called Asian partners—Japan, Korea, and the Philippines—are required to shoulder its cost.

In line with this “achipelagic defense” Teodoro bragged about the Marcos regime’s Php 2 trillion 2024 defense budget will be used to buy US-made weapons, vehicles, and other military equipment—overpriced antiquated US F-16 jet fighters, large ships to participate in “joint patrols” in the South China Sea, and other large weapons or “big tickets.”

In other words, all these yearly increase in military budget means the US-Marcos Jr regime has been splurging on what it calls defense yet trampling on the country’s sovereignty by opening up its territory to US military basing and troops and to the allies of imperialist US such as Japan and Australia. They are raiding the public coffers to fund the military buildup.

US Readying the Philippines

The ADS is readying the AFP for more intense US imperialist aggression in Asia-Pacific and that includes more and bigger joint military drills like Balikatan and Cope Thunder that are regularly held on Philippine territory. Participating troops increased from four digits in 2020 to more than 25,000 in 2025. The planned US military “engagements” rose from 300 in 2020 to over 500 annually from 2024 to 2026. Most of these “engagements” are joint exercises, patrols, and the annual one to two large-scale multi-lateral war games involving thousands.

For the Marcos regime, the “archipelagic concept” is bringing the Philippines country into more “alliances” and signing of visiting forces agreements with other US imperialist partners such as Japan, Australia, Canada, and France.

Entire archipelago and whole-of-nation approach being attuned for imperialist US

The archipelagic concept is clearly about being a proxy and subordinate of the US. In September 2022, the US announced the Task Force 76/3, a unit from its Indo-Pacific Command, to tighten control over naval facilities, bases, and forces in South East and Southeast Asian countries to surround China with land-based long-range missiles.

Since Balikatan 2025, a unit of this Task Force began operation. The US formed Task Force Ayungin in 2024 to provoke maritime skirmishes between China and the Philippines in the West Philippines Sea.

These war projects necessitate building more military bases. At the behest of the US, the AFP expanded military facilities at Ulugan or Oyster Bay in Palawan to serve as port and repair stations for large US vessels. The site is serving as launching pad for sailing US naval vessels to provoke armed confrontations with China. The US is also planning to construct a similar port for smaller assault ships in Quezon, also in Palawan, where it had constructed military barracks in 2024. The US wants it operational by 2026 in time for delivery of small boats and assault ships.

US has more plans for new military infrastructure. These include:

– a refueling depot or fuel storage in Davao Gulf spanning Davao City’s coastline to Malalag Bay;

– an ammunition factory in Subic Bay Freeport;

– a drone factory in Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport;

In March 2025, Marcos signed the Joint Vision Statement on US-Philippine Defense Industrial Cooperation. The US has identified some military companies it plans to bring into the country, thus promising huge benefits and commissions to military generals and bureaucrat capitalists who would partner or work as agents to supply the US war business with equipment and ammunition.

To date, the AFP has excitedly welcomed this announcement notwithstanding the failure of similar projects in the past to, even at the very least, “industrialize” the supply of war materials to the local reactionary troops. This is not to mention the toxic legacy the US military infrastructure and operations invariably leave where it located.

To the US, the military buildup and war provocations in the Asia-Pacific is not just about blocking the advance of its rival China. It is also about continuing to profit from war, selling arms and weapons, warships and planes as it pushes Southeast Asian countries to respond to China’s expansion with military buildup. The paradigm shift in the AFP is manifesting fully in the bigger, most ambitious shopping for war machines and construction of military infrastructure.

“Counterinsurgency”

Alongside the US-led war provocations against China, US promotes “counterinsurgency”, suppressing national liberation movements and destroying mass movements. Of the world’s total spending on military, the US leads with 37 percent. In the Philippines, a neocolony of imperialist US, the local reactionary troops have largely been using the US-supplied or brokered arms, munition, and military aid to repress the people and enforce martial law-like rule in mounting its “counterinsurgency” operations.

Two years after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro announced the shift from internal to external defense following Marcos Jr’s directive, activists and revolutionaries remain the top targets of the AFP.

Marcos’ line that there are “no more guerrilla groups” in the country is a “big lie.” Marcos made the declaration to satisfy his US imperialist masters who have been pouring large amounts of funds to AFP “counterinsurgency” operations over the last few years, in the vain hope that it can completely crush the New People’s Army, so that they can have the puppet AFP give full attention to supporting the US war plans in the Indo-Pacific.

Marco Valbuena, CPP Chief Information Officer

The CPP noted that while the Marcos Jr regime allows itself to be used in the war provocations against China, it has yet to remove its “counterinsurgency” forces that are conducting intense military operations in rural areas.

The resisting Filipino masses, their organized and revolutionary sections, and members of the mass movement are subjected to threats, trumped up criminal charges and constant demonization. Their communities are targets for aerial bombing, shelling and imposition of martial law conditions including hamletting, curfews, sanctions and food blockades. The reactionary government continuously opposes and sabotages the people’s action to implement genuine land reform and assert their right to self-determination.

More than the high-profile “engagements” with China at the West Philippine Sea, the reactionary troops encamp within civilian communities and use the civilian bureaucracy to subject people to surveillance, harassment and violent attacks whether they are armed revolutionaries or unarmed peasants and activists.

Marco Valbuena, CPP’s chief information officer said in an interview in October 2025 that Marcos’ line that there are no more guerrilla groups in the country is a big lie. “Marcos made the declaration to satisfy his US imperialist masters who have been pouring large amounts of funds to AFP ‘counterinsurgency’ operations over the last few years, in the vain hope that it can completely crush the New People’s Army, so that they can have the puppet AFP give full attention to supporting the US war plans in the Indo-Pacific.”

The US-Marcos Jr regime can only dream on. ### (Pinky Ang)