Balikatan

This is a major exercise that is held with the Philippines in the recent years, especially since the first Trump administration it has involved increasingly more and more other extra-regional partners.

Japan, notably for this year's Balikatan, it actually came in as a very major player.

I joked with my friend in the 7th Fleet around that time when we met up for coffee and I was making this observation in a somewhat joking manner that, look, for the very first time, Balikatan exercise, the Japanese were in fact the ones standing the largest ship because there's no US aircraft carrier.

during that and of course the only comparable ship was one landing ship dock from from the u.s navy that was involved in the exercise but the japanese in fact had a larger ship they had one of their helicopter destroyers one of their hyuga class that was there in fact you know the japanese were more visible in naval power projection in balikatan Then I was told that, look, you know, very often people tend to put attention on the carrier, but we also saw other forces stepping up.

The army stepped up, and in fact, the Coast Guard stepped up as well.

During his speech in Manila, he called the Southeast Asian nation a model ally and vowed a new era of mutual defense cooperation, and also deployment of at least four cutters from the US Coast Guard to help the Philippines against Chinese bullying in the West Philippine Sea.

This year also saw unprecedented exercises, both in terms of location and quantity and quality when it comes to the Balikatan exercises.

There's also expectation of more defense assistance to the Philippines as the United States double-downs on its alliance with its oldest ally in the region.

But is it enough? Is the United States committing enough assistance to the Philippines on the strategic front? Is the second Trump administration focused enough to deal with the China threat or China challenge? And what kind of challenge is the Philippines facing in the West Philippine Sea, especially as China also begins to harass Filipino servicemen in the Second Thomas Shoal yet again? Is the Philippine-US alliance ready for a major escalation? Will China be the third major superpower, after Russia's war against Ukraine and US war against Iran, to also launch its own major military operation in its own backyard? Is a war in Taiwan over the horizon? Is the Philippines ready for that? What is the future of Philippine-US alliance? To discuss all of these important issues, we have a special guest.

There are joint military exercises that the U.S. does with the Philippines.

The hallmark one is the Balikatan War Games, or the Shoulder to Shoulder War Games, the largest U.S.-Philippine joint exercises that also involve a lot of other countries and keeps getting bigger every year.

There are also the Salaknib exercises, which is, this exercise is actually explicitly trained the Armed Forces of the Philippines in what they call jungle warfare, because the United States recognizes that they must help the Philippines counterinsurgency efforts against the armed revolution being waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing of the New People's Army.

This is because they want to turn the Philippine government's attention towards external defense rather than domestic counterinsurgency.

So this is all part of their counterinsurgency efforts.

We acknowledge that the armed revolution that's been waging in the Philippines for over 50 years is one of the biggest obstacles to the AFP being able to shift its attention towards external military affairs.

Another recent instance of U.S.-backed fascism is the Burdo massacre of 19 people, both civilian and revolutionaries, that happened in Negros Island during the eve of the Balikatan War Games this year, so actually April 19.

So just several months ago, two Filipino-Americans, personal friends of mine, were among the fatalities during a 12-plus hour strafing operation of the military.

Uh, and now what we're seeing is the United States get involved with the Japanese and putting drones in the southern Ryukyu Islands.

And now, uh, we're seeing the Filipinos last year in September, uh, they were doing some exercises with, with drones in their, in the Balikatan exercise series.

Uh, i- integrated air and missile defense, using drones to help spot, uh, counter, uh, landing, uh, live fire exercises in Balikatan this year.

And now, uh, Secretary of Defense, uh, Teodoro, uh, from the Philippines yesterday in budget hearings before their Congress said, "Hey, we're gonna increase our budget by 6.3% for fiscal year 2027, and of that we're gonna...

Which is about a $5 billion budget now, and we're gonna add another 800 U- US dollars, $800 million US for modernization," which is actually a 25% increase in terms of modernization.

So the airfield infrastructure was improved to make it one of the most modern in Asia, and a second parallel runway was built, and the former base is now home to a golf resort, a number of industrial buildings, landmarks, and retail establishments.

It also hosts the annual Balikatan exercises between the US and Philippine Armed Forces, and it's still going through different renovations because I have seen YouTube videos of people going on the site.

Mm-hmm.

And some of it looks like it's been worked on, and some of it looks like it's never been worked on.