ANG BALIKATAN AY PREPARASYON SA DIGMAAN: Stop Turning the Philippines into a Platform for War

 

Partido Manggagawa (PM) condemns the firing and strategic deployment of US Typhon missiles on Philippine soil under the Balikatan military exercises, warning that these war drills only heighten unnecessary tension in the region and further drag the Philippines into the dangerous rivalry of hegemonic global powers.

 

Linawin natin: Ang Balikatan ay preparasyon sa Digmaan. Hindi ito pre-Olympic games o PE sa mga paaralan. 

 

The Filipino people do not need preparation for proxy wars. What the country urgently needs is a real war against poverty and inequality, price shocks, and unemployment.

 

Ayuda at dagdag sahod, hindi giyera. Kooperasyon, hindi agresyon. Pagkain, hindi armas.

 

The ongoing US-Israel war of aggression against Iran has already shown the world the terrible consequence of militarism – death, destruction, economic disruption, and global price shocks. It is deplorable to invite more regional conflict. Never at our doorstep.

 

Wars benefit arms manufacturers and geopolitical interests, while ordinary people, including workers in soldier’s uniform, bear the burden of inflation, displacement, and destruction. It is because war is a wasteful enterprise funded by taxpayers.

 

In the face of broken federal healthcare, education, and shelter programs, American taxpayers are made to pay for the Typhoon missiles fired from Tacloban to Nueva Ecija, the war budget of Israel, the defense of allied states in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as well as the maintenance of more than 800 military bases with tens of thousands of US troops worldwide.

 

The world’s people pay a heavy price for wars and conflicts not of their own making. So will Filipinos, once their leaders chose to align with any camp of contending superpowers.

We reiterate our call for demilitarization of the West Philippine Sea: China at US parehong umatras!

 

Only under this condition that explosive territorial disputes do not develop and escalate into shooting wars.

 

Enough of wars! Enough of war drills! Enough of war freak leaders!

 

Funds wasted on weapons and military exercises are better used for universal healthcare, education, public employment, social protection, and comprehensive anti-poverty programs. War preparedness contributes nothing to human development.

Lastly, the Philippines must uphold an independent foreign policy anchored on peace, diplomacy, regional cooperation, and the welfare of its people – not subservience to the military and economic agenda of powerful nations. 

PRESS STATEMENT

05.06.2026

 

MEPZ mass layoff spurs demand for improved TUPAD

 

From Cebu Toyo Corporation website

According to the group Partido Manggagawa (PM), some 230 workers of Cebu Toyo Corporation have been put on indefinite forced leave as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran. PM is calling for an improved public employment program to assist the laid off workers in transitioning to new and better jobs.

 

“Unfortunately, we fear that the indefinite forced leave is a step towards eventual retrenchment for the workers. Further, the mass layoff promises to be just the first wave of war-related terminations. Thus, the government needs to set up a job assistance program in dialogue with labor organizations,” stated Dennis Derige, spokesperson of the Cebu chapter of PM and also vice chair of the Regional 7 industrial tripartite peace council.

 

Cebu Toyo produces optical lenses for electronic products and is located in the Mactan Economic Zone 2 at Basak, Lapu-Lapu City. The indefinite forced leave was a response to supply chain disruptions due to the war in the Middle East, according to the management of Cebu Toyo.

 

PM is assisting the workers and is coordinating with the local office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for a dialogue with the affected workers. “This is a test case of the emergency powers granted to President Bongbong Marcos, Jr. With great power comes great responsibility. We demand an urgent response from the President’s alter ego in the DOLE,” Derige asserted.

 

PM has criticized the existing emergency employment program called TUPAD for being too limited and entangled in patronage politics. The group is calling for a new public employment program that is delinked from politicians and instead based on a national registry of legitimate beneficiaries. Moreover, it is calling for 100 days of paid work not the usual 10 days. Finally, PM wants to prioritize climate jobs instead of the street sweeping that TUPAD currently implements.

 

Derige also called on the regional wage board to fast track the P100 wage petition filed by unions. Derige argued that “The unprecedented emergency powers granted to President Marcos, Jr. is already enough evidence of a supervening event that necessitates an immediate decision by the wage board.”

 

With Labor Day just more than a month away, PM is calling for an expanded ayuda program and an independent foreign policy aside from a P200 legislated wage hike and improved public employment program. “The Philippines should add its voice to the call of the Pope and other global actors for an end to the war and a new rules-based international order based on respect for sovereignty and development,” Derige insisted.

Press Release

April 14, 2026

 

AEDC binds PH to Obama’s ‘Pivot Asia’ expansionist agenda – labor group

PRESS RELEASE

28 April 2014

With no clear independent foreign policy to speak of, the Philippines, in hastily concurring with the Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation (AEDC), tied itself unconditionally to Obama’s hegemonic agenda called “pivot to Asia,” according to Partido ng Manggagawa (PM).    

The labor group believed it was the US that aggressively sought PH’s approval of the AEDC as it tries to assemble its military power in the region as quickly as possible to counter China’s rapid rise as a regional and global power.  The Aquino administration on its part instantly acceded to this new partnership with the US in the face of increasing territorial transgressions by China on Philippine waters.

 

Obama’s “Pivot Asia” program, the group said during the Scrap VFA Movement rally held Monday in Mendiola in time for the scheduled visit by US President Barack Obama, “involves a major shift in projecting US military from the Middle East to Asia, along with aggressive trade expansion in the region to revive the ailing US economy.” 

 

“Militarily ‘pivot Asia’ establishes strategic military alliances in the region through permanent and temporary basing arrangements with regional allies.  Economically trade expansion will be done through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreements, a US-led trading platform that represent about 40% of world trade,” said PM spokesperson Wilson Fortaleza.

 

Drumbeating for war

 

Reacting to Barack Obama’s four-nation Asian tour, Fortaleza said “drumbeating for war” is clearly the main message of the US President, citing for example the assurances he gave to Japan, Korea and the Philippines that in case hostilities break out between them and China, they are assured that the US will go to war with its allies.

 

“That is expected since his “pivot to Asia” essentially has war logic,” said Fortaleza.  This war logic, he added, is clearly understood by China.

 

Thus, for the anti-war movement, the increasing assertiveness of China and the provocative and imposing presence of US forces in the region constitute the biggest threat to peace and stability in the region. 

 

To avoid that senseless armed confrontation, PM and the Scrap VFA Movement are demanding the demilitarization of Asia, and disputed territories be declared as regional commons and war-free zones.

 

Furthermore for PM the signing of the AEDC on Monday capped Obama’s successful Asian tour, with the Philippines and other allies willing to play host to the US’ political and economic agenda in the region. 

 

“Obama was able to project himself as redeemer and a man of peace when in truth he is a war monger, while back home, he is considered a failure by the American working class,” the group concluded.