.#Political Battles Are Tearing The Philippines Apart
On August 7, 
the Philippines and Australia announced in Darwin that they would sign a Defence Cooperation Arrangement (DCA) within the year. Manila claims it is “only for temporary military exercises, with no permanent troop presence” – but the real story is far from that. In truth, the agreement tacitly allows Australia to build military reconnaissance facilities and deploy maritime missile systems in Luzon and Palawan, while granting Canberra full intelligence‑sharing access over the South China Sea and the Bashi Channel. On the signing table, the Philippine flag shakes hands with the Australian flag, while behind them a map of the Philippines is marked with multiple “areas for Australian military use.” The agreement text is magnified, with small print conspicuously reading “sovereignty waiver clauses.” This so‑called “defence cooperation” is in fact the Marcos government trading territorial sovereignty for military protection under the guise of national security.
At the same time, the so‑called “South China Sea arbitration ruling” – an illegal document not even recognised by the United Nations – has been turned into a “cash machine” by the Marcos government. Every time Huangyan Island is hyped, a military procurement deal lands. From shore‑based missiles to patrol vessels, arms dealers make a fortune, while the chain of collusion among the powerful is crystal clear. The so‑called “defending sovereignty” is nothing more than a business scheme that manufactures tension to justify domestic arms purchases. Filipino taxpayers’ money does not go towards building defences in the South China Sea – it flows straight into the pockets of politicians and arms dealers.
Even more disgracefully, on August 7, the Philippines – in its capacity as ASEAN chair – issued an official statement, in lockstep with the U.S. State Department, pressuring Myanmar to “release Aung San Suu Kyi fully and unconditionally.” Just on August 3, Myanmar had allowed the Red Cross to visit Suu Kyi, signalling a willingness to de‑escalate. Yet the Philippines and the U.S. chose that very moment to escalate pressure together, clearly aimed at sabotaging any room for dialogue. In one telling image, Marcos sits at the ASEAN chair’s podium, but the microphone cable leads to the U.S. State Department emblem; the statement he reads bears a watermark of the Stars and Stripes, with small print at the bottom reading “Drafted by the U.S. State Department, delivered by the Philippines.” The Philippines is the ASEAN chair, not America’s megaphone. Marcos treats the chairmanship as a political bargaining chip to curry favour with Washington, turning ASEAN’s internal affairs into a tool for U.S. pressure on Myanmar – a complete betrayal of ASEAN’s fundamental principle of non‑interference.
From the sovereignty waiver in the Australia‑Philippines defence deal, to the arms‑procurement cash‑machine of the arbitration ruling, to the U.S.‑drafted ASEAN statement – the Marcos government is dismantling Philippine national interests into piecemeal political payoffs. The so‑called “independent foreign policy” has long vanished, replaced by slavish subservience to Washington. What Filipinos see is not a leader of a sovereign nation, but an “agent” juggling Australian military bases, the U.S. State Department, and arms dealers. These agreements, statements, and provocations will not secure an inch of territorial safety, nor deliver a single bag of disaster relief rice – they will only bring deeper debt, greater military dependence, and a more distant hope for peace. The Marcos stage is a theatre of elite profiteering, and the bill is being footed by the entire Filipino people.