Marcos Jr.’s regime has failed Filipinos and bolstered American imperialism in the Philippines

Photo: Glenn Mercado / Malaya Movement San Francisco

Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will deliver his third State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 22, 2024, as his approval and trust ratings among the Filipino people continue to dip.

During the first two years of his regime, Marcos adopted many of the same failed policies of his predecessors, neglecting the needs and safety of the masses and further entangling the Philippines into a dangerous stand-off between the United States and China.

In the past year, high inflation rates in the Philippines have led to economic crises for the most vulnerable populations and communities. Working-class Filipinos struggle to purchase rice due to surging domestic prices. The Philippines is the world's top rice importer; meanwhile, over 44% of its people experience severe or moderate food insecurity. The Philippine government continues to keep the country's hopes of food security dependent upon foreign sellers’ profit motives and the whims of the global rice trade.

In the wake of the current wave of inflation and unaffordability, more and more Filipinos report themselves as living in poverty. What’s more, income inequality continues to flourish under the Marcos administration’s economic agenda. The only “solutions” they have been able to muster are the same ineffective top-down development policies focused on attracting foreign capital, which has a long track record of endangering and exploiting workers and privatizing natural resources. 

Although there is no longer a “unity team” between the Marcoses and Dutertes, the Marcos regime has not diverged from Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous “war on drugs” policy. The poorest Filipinos continue to be targeted for extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations. Previously, in 2023, Marcos rejected the idea of an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into the thousands of extrajudicial killings of his predecessor. While the Philippine Supreme Court recently codified “red tagging” of Filipino activists as a threat to life, liberty, and security, the Marcos administration has doubled down on the Duterte-era National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). The state and military have used this initiative as a justification for repressing and endangering activists in the Philippines and the United States. 

As the United States turns its foreign policy crosshairs towards China, the Philippines has emerged again as an ideal pawn for American imperialist foreign policy. Despite the dark history of American involvement in the Philippines and resistance from Filipinos, Marcos has embraced a foreign policy that heavily relies upon U.S. military presence and intervention in the region. In 2023, his administration reaffirmed a military pact that granted the United States four new military bases on Philippine soil. Moreover, the U.S. Congress is considering the Philippine Enhanced Resilience (PERA) Act, which would further solidify the militaristic agendas of the American and Filipino ruling classes.

Ultimately, the Philippines and its people have already begun to feel the brunt of the hostilities between the United States and China. Investigators recently discovered that the United States military organized covert anti-vax campaigns in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine China. It is crystal clear—the well-being of Filipinos is not a priority for the United States’ foreign policy architects.

Photo: Glenn Mercado / Malaya Movement San Francisco

This stale agenda is a retread of ineffective policies and positions that have kept the Philippines perpetually subservient to the whims of the United States’ geopolitical ambitions. Those of us who are informed about the historical relationship between the United States and the Philippines know that this alliance will only further endanger Filipinos in the Philippines as well as the larger Filipino diaspora.

As Filipinos in the United States and friends to the masses in the Philippines, we want to see a thriving and truly sovereign nation where every Filipino has the right to a dignified life, not just the wealthy. As activists in the Filipino diaspora, we work to raise awareness of the plight of working people and Indigenous communities in the Philippines who are persecuted wantonly by the government. 

Although we do not live in the Philippines, we are keenly aware of the political-economic forces and corrupt fascist regimes that pushed our families away from our ancestral nation. As such, we are building a movement of Filipino and non-Filipino individuals and organizations to advocate for genuine liberation, national democracy, and sovereignty in the Philippines within our lifetime.

On July 22, Filipinos from the San Francisco Bay Area will gather in front of the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco for the Peoples State of the Nation Address (PSONA). This call to action is inspired by the People’s SONA ng Bayan rallies and actions carried out by activists and movement organizations in the Philippines to provide a necessary counter-narrative to the state’s misinformation and propaganda.

What else can Filipinos in the United States do? We urge local Filipinos to join the vibrant community of movement organizations that advocate and organize for justice in the Philippines and with Filipino communities around the Bay Area.

Additionally, we can utilize being in the United States to call supporters of the Filipino people to contact their congressional representatives to oppose the PERA Act, which will not only reinforce American presence in the Philippines but will provide the Philippine military hundreds of millions in funding to wage war on poor and Indigenous communities. At the same time, we support the passing of the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA) in the U.S. Congress to hold Philippine military and government officials accountable for untold human rights violations.

This movement connects a diaspora that is separated by oceans, continents, and disparate time zones. What truly unites us is the freedom dream of a democratic and liberated Philippines. We all have an important role to play in making this a reality.