Quezon City – On a highway in the Ilocos Norte province earlier this month, Father Arvin Mangrubang of the Philippine Independent Church slowly drove opposite a dozen or so hulking armoured vehicles and trucks carrying United States soldiers.
He felt a pit form in his throat.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
“It’s become so normalised around here, the military, the threat of war,” Mangrubang told Al Jazeera.
This coastal province on the country’s northwestern tip faces the South China Sea and is just 345km (214 miles) south of Taiwan.
Due to its strategic location, the province regularly hosts high-profile displays of military might as part of US-Philippines war games, including the recently concluded annual Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) joint exercises.
Father Mangrubang says US soldiers can be spotted all year round in the area, but during the summer months of April and May, their military operations kick into high gear.
What feels like an occasional reminder of potential conflict is then transformed by the Balikatan exercises into a palpable invitation that confrontation could be just around the corner.
“The constant display of tanks, drones and loud gunfire sends everyone into a fright, especially those who live so close to the operations,” Mangrubang told Al Jazeera.
This year’s three-week-long Balikatan exercises were the biggest so far, with more than 17,000 soldiers taking part from six countries alongside the Philippines.
The US military made up the lion’s share of the foreign contingent, with some 10,000 soldiers in attendance, while several thousand soldiers hailed from Canada, Japan, Australia, France and New Zealand.
Analysts believe the war games, which take place across the archipelago, amount to a provocation of Washington’s rival in East Asia – China – at a time when the US military is waging war against Iran.
Locally, Philippine fishing and farming communities have also suffered livelihood disruption caused by the drills.
The Philippines: ‘A forward base and launch pad’
Raymond Palatino, secretary-general of Bayan, a national coalition of activist groups first formed in 1985 to confront the US-backed hardline rule of President Ferdinand Marcos, said the Philippines should distance itself from US military planning, starting with ending joint exercises.
“It is paving the way for the US war machine to boost its horrific range from West Asia to the West Philippine Sea,” Palatino told Al Jazeera.
Bayan supporters held protests at the headquarters of the Philippine military and the US Embassy in Manila, coinciding with the start of the Balikatan exercises.
The activists said the US military presence heightened the chances of the Philippines becoming a target for Washington’s enemies and risked dragging Filipinos into the conflict, just as Gulf countries had been drawn into the war on Iran.
“The exercises clearly demonstrated the specific military role that the US wants the Philippines to play in its inter-imperialist rivalry with China: That of a forward base and launchpad for military attacks,” Bayan said in a statement.
“The presence of US troops and weapons in the country does not guarantee our safety or security. On the contrary, it increases the likelihood of avoidable deaths and destruction, including possible attacks from US adversaries,” it said.
“This is evident in the ongoing US-Israel war against Iran, where American military bases and facilities in Gulf countries have become legitimate targets in the conflict,” it added.
Philippine Major-General Francisco Lorenzo Jr, local director of the Balikatan exercises, said the US’s war on Iran had no relevance for the war games in the Philippines, while his US military counterpart said the manoeuvres did not present a challenge to anyone, particularly China, the US’s main military rival.
Marco Valbuena, spokesperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which leads a rebel army in the Philippine countryside, called claims about the defensive, “deterrence” character of Balikatan “pure hogwash”.
“The Balikatan exercises will further tighten the US military stranglehold of the Philippines, and make it serve as a springboard for military aggression in Asia and elsewhere,” Valbuena said.
“This ‘deterrence policy’ did not stop the US from carrying out the bombing of Iran on false pretexts,” he told Al Jazeera.
Valbuena also said domestic anti-rebellion operations are a big part of the US agenda, with the rebels accusing American officers of “manning technical equipment in AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] tactical command posts during combat operations against the NPA [New People’s Army]”, the armed wing of the CPP.
Rehearsals for war?
The Philippines is the largest recipient of US military aid in the Asia Pacific region.
Between 2015 and 2022, Washington sent more than $1.14bn worth of military equipment, including planes, ships, armoured vehicles, small arms and training programmes to the Philippines, as well as more than 850 ship visits to Philippine ports and at least 1,300 military engagements with local forces.
In December 2025, the US Congress approved a proposal to allot $2.5bn in security assistance to the Philippines until 2030.
International studies professor Renato De Castro at the De La Salle University in Manila told Al Jazeera that this year’s Balikatan had a dual message: The US “showing the world and China that it is capable of mobilising and deploying forces in two different theatres” simultaneously, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Professor Roland Simbulan, an expert on US-Philippine relations from the University of the Philippines, said the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz also sent a message to China, Iran’s main trading partner.
The Philippines, Simbulan added, is now critical to Washington as US military facilities in the Philippines are key for its “refuelling, repair, communications and intelligence” – what he described as “eyes, ears and brains” in the Southeast Asia region.
The 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the Philippines allows the US to refuel and bunker its naval vessels at local ports. The US already has a major refuelling station in its former naval base in Subic Bay, while in July 2025, it was reported that the US military was eyeing the southern Philippine islands for another refuelling station.
Plans have also been announced for the construction of a US ammunition factory in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
According to De Castro of De La Salle University, the Balikatan exercises have shifted emphasis in the last two years from internal security to external defence.
This, according to De Castro, means the exercises are focused on “oiling the machinery” of war and “really rehearsing it with allies, with the United States, with Japan, so forth”.
The US has since 2024 deployed its Typhon missile system in Ilocos Norte province, which is capable of launching Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles.
On May 6, US and Philippine forces, for the first time, launched a Tomahawk missile as part of the Balikatan drills. The missile flew 600km (373 miles) from Tacloban city to Nueva Ecija.
The Makabayan Coalition, a group of opposition lawmakers, criticised the missile launch, saying these were the same US weapons tearing Iran apart.
“The Philippines is not a playground for US missiles and bombs that will be used to kill civilians in other parts of the world,” the lawmakers said.
Among the demonstrations showcased to the public during the exercises were air defence manoeuvres in Zambales province and live fire exercises in Palawan and Ilocos Norte, which culminated in the sinking of a decommissioned World War II-era vessel off Ilocos Norte’s coast on May 8.
Such activities have not been received well by local communities, who rely on fishing and farming in areas where the war games take place.
‘No sail zone’
The Philippine military declared a “no sail zone” for up to 11 days along certain coastal areas to make way for the Balikatan.
“Filipino fishers do not deserve to be restricted from their livelihood, especially as we are grappling with the oil price shock that stemmed from the aggression of the US and Israel in the Middle East,” said Ronnel Arambulo of the Pamalakaya organisation, a national federation of small fisherfolk.
According to the group’s estimates, along Subic Bay in Zambales province, the exercises impact the livelihood of about 4,800 fisherfolk.
In a 2023 report, the Philippine Statistics Authority found that fisherfolk had the highest poverty incidence in the country.
Hilda Reyes, a member of the Municipal Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council in San Antonio, Zambales, said despite the military allowing a few hours a day for fishermen to take their boats out, many were afraid of getting caught in possible crossfire.
“During the exercises, there’s no telling what could happen out at sea. I wouldn’t risk it myself,” Reyes told Al Jazeera.
Reyes added that besides fisherfolk, many in the local informal economy are living hand to mouth and struggling to get by.
Colonel Dennis Hernandez, Balikatan spokesperson for the Philippines, told Al Jazeera that the military was trying to minimise the disruption to the local economy.
“Temporary safety zones may be established in specific areas during live-fire or maritime activities strictly for public safety,” Hernandez said.
But amid the Balikatan drills and growing relations with the US and other foreign militaries, China and the Philippines continued to trade barbs over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Manila scored a diplomatic and legal win in 2016 by achieving a favourable ruling at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague over China’s expansive claims to the South China Sea.
Nevertheless, Beijing maintains it has sovereign rights over about 90 percent of the disputed waters in the sea and regularly clashes with Manila over their overlapping claims.
On April 24, just a few days into Balikatan, China’s Southern Theatre Command conducted live-fire drills in the South China Sea east of the Philippines’ Luzon island group.
The Chinese military said the drills were to “safeguard national sovereignty”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun also had a direct warning regarding Balikatan.
“The last thing the region needs is division and confrontation as a result of the introduction of external forces,” Guo said.
“For countries that tie their own security to others, it is important to bear in mind that this may very well backfire.”