Filipino women against U.S. militarism! U.S. Out of the Philippines!

U.S. Out of the Philippines!

Defend Peasant & Working Women against U.S. Militarization!

End Violence Against Women and Children!

4/21/25

April 21st marks the start of the largest Balikatan war exercises ever conducted in the Philippines.

GABRIELA USA is outraged by the spineless Marcos Jr. administration and the Philippine government’s subservience to the U.S. government. Their inability to fight for our sovereign rights will only push the country to face more turmoil under U.S.-led war. Each year since Marcos Jr. was fraudulently elected in 2022, the military exercises have only increased in size and imported deadlier weapons to the detriment of the Filipino people.

The 3-week exercise from April 21-May 9 will engage close to 17,000 soldiers from both the U.S. and the Philippine military - including the participation of Japan and Australia's forces. It will consist of a simulation of a “full-scale battle” that will showcase the force of U.S.-provided lethal weapons through live-fire missiles, anti-missile defense and sinking warships into the sea.

Additionally, the Philippines is striking a massive arms deal with the U.S. which consists of a weapons sale at an estimated worth of $5.58 billion. Meanwhile, the rate of hunger and poverty has only increased in the past period, pushing more people into debt and desperate situations. It is clear to us that these war exercises are not in the interests of the Filipino masses but instead to further instigate the U.S.’s conflict with China at the expense of the Filipino people’s lives – especially Filipino women and children.

The Balikatan exercises are just another way that U.S. intervention and the puppet Philippine government subjects the Filipino masses, especially women and children, to violence. Marcos Jr., Jose Manuel Romualdez and the U.S. government have and never will be invested in the safety and protection of the Filipino people.

This is evident in the willful abandonment of Filipino migrants in the U.S. under ICE detention – like Ligaya Jensen, Alma Bowman, Aunty Lynn & Ate M – all who have received little to no support from the Philippine government, or the complete ignorance toward the families living in the areas where Balikatan is conducted; the Filipino people are treated as merely pawns for the Philippine government to appease their U.S. imperialist masters.

In fact, Filipino women have always been offered on a platter to appease the U.S. Earlier this month, a New York Times article revealed that FBI agents deployed to Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, have been soliciting prostitution as a social activity during conferences for at least 9 years. Betraying its people once more, state police forces like the Philippine National Police (PNP) and local law enforcement were the ones pimping out Filipino women – even paying for these activities.

Additionally, red light districts have taken a new form of exploitation and implemented “akyat-barko” where Filipino women board naval ships to engage in prostitution, allowing this violence to happen away from public sight.

We recognize this violence against women as a systemic issue. Marcos Jr continues to sell out the Filipino people through prioritizing unequal agreements with imperialist powers that come at the expense of the livelihood of Filipinos across the world. While our tax dollars are being spent on sending military aid and weapons to the Philippines, migrants here are suffering and face severe state neglect at a time where their rights are increasingly under attack. When Filipinos choose to stand up and fight for their basic rights, they are met with militarization and state terrorism in return, especially in the countryside.

This has never stopped the masses from fighting for better conditions, and more Filipinos are seeing the need to fight for a system that would genuinely address their needs. The revolutionary movement in the Philippines recognizes that the only way through change is by addressing the root problems and fighting for National Democracy.

GABRIELA remains committed to fighting all forms of violence against women by struggling for National Democracy and smashing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism as the root causes of the Filipino people’s suffering. We demand justice and prioritization for all victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. We demand accountability from the Philippine government in its crimes against its own people.

###