The Balikatan, or “shoulder-to-shoulder,” Exercises is an annual military event between the United States and the Philippines meant to reinforce the Philippines’ role as a U.S. military collaborator by increasing training, intelligence, and capacity to respond to external threats to U.S. interests in the Asia Pacific. In essence, the exercises are a theater for warfare and US military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Malaya Movement USA unequivocally asserts Philippine sovereignty against the Balikatan Military Exercises between the Philippines and the United States. We in the Malaya Movement USA condemn any provocation for escalation of hostilities and war mongering between the two superpowers. It is on this basis that we stand firmly that the Philippines does not stand to gain from Balikatan.

The Malaya Movement USA stands in full solidarity with the striking jeepney drivers in the Philippines. We echo their demands of junking the Government’s so-called “jeepney modernization” program. We call on overseas Filipinos to mobilize support, moral and material, towards the striking jeepney drivers.

Malaya Movement USA condemns and opposes the current push to revise the 1987 Philippine Constitution. This effort is clearly self-serving, unnecessary and dangerous. We, in the Malaya Movement USA, call on the Filipino people to reject and oppose the current moves of the Marcos-Duterte regime to change the constitution.

The Malaya Movement USA joins the Filipino people in celebrating and remembering the 37th anniversary of the EDSA People’s Power Uprising that toppled the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. In this year’s anniversary celebration, we especially call on the Filipino people to study and critically evaluate the past, both its achievements and shortcomings so as to understand our current situation and draw necessary lessons for our present struggle against the restoration of the Marcos dynasty.

This month, Malaya Movement USA celebrates our 5th founding anniversary. This anniversary celebration is set in the context of our continuing duty to advance the struggle to defend, uphold and assert human rights, democracy and sovereignty in the Philippines. First and foremost, we offer this 5th founding anniversary celebration to the Filipino people. We dedicate this to all victims of the Duterte regime’s vicious war on drugs, to the many activists and human rights defenders who have been martyred in the fight against fascism, and to all the political prisoners.