Column: RIMPAC, Marcos, and war against China

This July, the U.S. military plans to host 25,000 personnel from 27 nations for the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises in Hawaii in the world’s biggest naval exercises. Because of its strategic location in Southeast Asia, the Philippines plays a crucial role in the U.S.’s plans for any coming war against China.

In 2011 then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a “pivot” from the Middle East toward Asia. In U.S. war planning, Hawaii and the Philippines — together with Taiwan, South Korea, Okinawa and Guam — serve as staging areas. As China fortifies outcroppings in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea into military bases, the U.S. conducts provocative “freedom of navigation” incursions by military aircraft and warships.

During April, the U.S. sent 5,000 troops to the Philippines for Exercise Balikatan (“shoulder-to-shoulder”) to simulate war with China. Hawaii’s U.S. Rep. Ed Case also visited the Philippines in April to promote ties between the U.S. and the Philippines. While sanctioning Russia and supporting Ukraine with weapons, the U.S. will not send troops to fight in Ukraine. In contrast, on May 23, President Joe Biden vowed that the U.S. would engage militarily if China were to invade Taiwan.

Despite a Philippine presidential election marred by disinformation, intimidation, violence and fraud, the U.S. quickly welcomed the installation of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., signaling its eagerness to consolidate its military presence in the Philippines. The Biden administration’s response aligns with U.S. policy vis-a-vis the Duterte government, which relied heavily on the U.S. military in operations against the Moro peoples in Mindanao.

Marcos Jr. is the son of the late Ferdinand Marcos, who was president from 1965 and declared martial law in 1972. As the U.S. supported Ferdinand Marcos’s kleptocratic rule, U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay and Clark Air Base served as launching pads for the Vietnam War. Martial law ended when Marcos was deposed in 1986.

The Philippines evicted the U.S. from its bases on Philippine soil in 1991, though with the Visiting Forces Agreement of 1998, joint exercises were resumed. U.S. interests in the region are entrusted to the Philippine military and police. There is a lack of transparency about the exact scope of the arms sales and logistical support.

While the U.S. has counted the Philippines as a strategic ally since the end of formal colonial rule, by vying to be the first to congratulate Marcos Jr., Biden angles for a stronger alliance. Marcos Jr. denies any accountability to the martyrs and victims of his father’s martial law regime, and ignores the restitution to which his family is obligated for the billions of dollars of wealth that they plundered from the people of the Philippines. The U.S. thus appears poised to give Marcos Jr. a pass for the sake of its war plans. A foreign policy respectful of human rights would follow the provisions of the Philippine Human Rights Act, which would cut off U.S. government funding used for human rights violations by the Philippine military and police.

We are one with the people of Hawaii in opposing the U.S.-led wars, for which Balikatan and RIMPAC are warm-ups. As it is, our governments bring together the people of Hawaii and the people of the Philippines to prepare for war, death and destruction.

Military posturing in the Asia-Pacific also risks nuclear war and the potential extinction of the human species. We must instead work toward global cooperation to address the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss; to build toward peace, life and coexistence.

Seiji Yamada, Richard Rothschiller and Arcelita Imasa are members of the Hawaii Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines.