Send your support to workers in the Philippines this May Day!

The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU – May First Movement Labor Center) is geared up for May 1 to assert its genuine militant and patriotic unionism in a world that is heaving with exploitation of workers and the planet, and shaken by wars and huge dislocations of working people.

Now more than ever, as US war wreaks havoc across the world, we must link with workers in the Philippines and support their contribution to the worldwide clamor for peace based on justice. Donate to support KMU today! 

The Philippines is one of the 10 worst places in the world for workers’ rights, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s Global Rights Index 2025.

The Jeepney Drivers Association, PISTON, a federation of KMU is leading the national protest strikes of transport workers at sky-high fuel prices due to the current illegal Gulf War. This April, a longstanding KMU Union of Kowloon restaurant workers sustained a strike for six days winning a wage increase. And last year the KMU union at Nexperia Philippines won a long struggle over wages and reinstatement of dismissed union officers in a strike on International Working Women’s Day.

KMU is a key component of national coalition to oppose imperialist wars, to oppose the US military in the Philippines, and to expose and hold accountable the national political leaders who are plundering the national budget.

The Marcos Jr administration has 18 KMU trade union leaders in prison, and is pursuing charges against 22 others who are out on bail. The charges they face are fabricated to repress the exercise of the basic rights of Filipino workers to freedom of association and to collective bargaining. The total number of political prisoners held in Marcos Jr’s jails is 678.

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), raises urgent concern over the intensified foreign military presence and deepening U.S. intervention in the Philippines, epitomized by the 2026 Balikatan war games. These joint military exercises, which are the largest to date, are a dangerous escalation in the Indo-Pacific region, drawing in U.S. allies into preparations for war against China and worsening counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in the Philippines that continue to have devastating impacts on the Filipino people.   

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the United States military will conduct the most expansive Balikatan Exercise across the country from April 20 to May 8. Coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the United States-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty, more than 17,000 personnel from the Philippines, US, Australia, Japan, Canada, France and New Zealand will train “shoulder-to-shoulder”, and an additional 17 nations will participate as part of the international observer program in the 41st iteration of Exercise Balikatan.

Putting on the Balikatan exercises in the context of a global fuel crisis caused by the unprovoked aggression of the US-Israel attacks on Iran is a slap in the face to Filipinos already suffering so much from the impacts of the US led war. Through this crisis the average Filipino has struggled to get to work, struggled to pay for cooking fuel, and struggled with the spiralling inflation and increasing price of basic commodities. The militaries of the Philippines, US, Australia, Japan, Canada, France and New Zealand will indulge in massive fuel consumption  to power their naval vessels, jets and other equipment in the midst of the worst fuel crisis since WWII. 

This year’s Balikatan exercise follows with the US First Island Chain strategy – a Cold War-era U.S. plan to contain China by establishing naval bases along a chain of islands in the Western Pacific, including Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. This strategy aims to restrict China’s sea access and to project U.S. power in the region. Projecting power through the Balikatan “full battle test” exercises, which include live-fire drills near Taiwan and the West Philippine Sea, prepares for war with China, drawing the Philippines into a proxy conflict.

The 2026 exercises also follow recent announcements of US initiatives to further establish the Philippines as its major military Hub in Asia. This month, the Marcos Jr Administration announced an agreement with the US under the “Pax Silica” initiative,  which will create a special economic zone in the Philippines focused on the production of critical minerals and electronics for US supply chains. Progressive groups in the Philippines have noted that the materials produced in this kind of zone feed not only consumer markets but also missiles, drones, surveillance systems, and communications infrastructure. This Pax Silica Industrial Hub, paired with the new US ammunition production site in Subic, make the Filipino more vulnerable to become targets in the context of US war in Asia. 

In the end, what the Balikatan exercises try to manufacture is the idea that the Philippines is facing a national emergency because of an alleged threat of invasion by China. In reality, the Philippines is facing a national emergency caused by US hegemony and war, which has for years plunged the Philippines into poverty and civil war. 

While the US ramps up its war games against China, the US backed AFP also ramps up its brutal counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, as seen even in the massive military operation in Negros on the first day of the Baliktan exercises, April 20. As the military operations in Negros led to massive war crimes, killing 19 and displacing 653, so too will future COIN operations continue to impact people across the Philippines. The national democratic struggle in the Philippines remains the main deterrent to complete US domination of the country, and the Filipino people will continue to resist and struggle for national liberation in the face of escalating US war. 

ICHRP calls for an end to the Balikatan exercises which serve as a pretext for further U.S. military intervention. The exercises are ultimately a violation of Philippine sovereignty and a tool for U.S. military intervention that exacerbates human rights violations; all countries that wish to express concern for human rights and peace should immediately withdraw participation.

What is counter-insurgency?

In response to revolutionary movements in the Global South, the US has developed over the last century techniques of warfare, economics, politics, and culture to isolate and crush people’s resistance movements to domination.

“Counter-insurgency” (COIN) is the US’ method of suppressing national liberation movements. COIN is a military solution to economic and social inequality and injustice. COIN means widespread violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses.

US colonization: “Pacification” campaigns (1899-1910s)

From 1899 until the 1910s, the US colonized and violently suppressed the revolutionary forces in the Philippines who were fighting for independence. Estimates suggest 1-3 million Filipinos died from attacks, famine, and disease.

The first “native” military troops, the Philippine Constabulary, were established by the US and trained at the Philippine Military Academy, modeled after Westpoint – down to the same grey wool uniforms! The AFP-PNP today are the direct descendants of the Constabulary.

Return of the US: Early days of the CIA (1940s)

At the end of WWII, the US returned to the Philippines to re-establish its rule after Japanese occupation. However, the Filipino people had just thrown out the Japanese in a campaign of resistance and guerilla war. The Huks, a communist-led guerilla army, had even established its own rule in Central Luzon among peasant communities.

In response, the newly established CIA cut its teeth in COIN operations against the Huks.

CIA agent Edward Lansdale became close with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Ramon Magsaysay. With Lansdale as his mentor, Magsaysay led the brutal suppression campaign against the Huks.

The military preyed on the superstition of the peasantry by dressing up the corpses of murdered Huks as if they had been attacked by aswang, a creature similar to a vampire. The murdered rebels would be left to hang with their blood drained near communities suspected of supporting the Huks.

Oplan Sagittarius: Martial Law (1972-1986)

Ferdinand Marcos, infamous dictator and father of Bongbong Marcos, declared Martial Law across the country as an act of brutal suppression against the people.

His reign lasted for 20 years, with thousands of killings, enforced disappearances, and other rights violations.

In this time, the revolutionary communist movement expanded nationwide as more and more people were driven to take up arms in the face of fascist repression.

Download the full primer on the War on Iran here

On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched an illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran. The initial bombing salvo killed Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and triggered hundreds of retaliatory missiles and thousands of drones fired from Iran at Israel and US bases and states hosting US facilities across the Gulf region. The war has left more than 2,000 dead in Iran, Lebanon, and Israel, while over a million people are displaced in Lebanon. Subsequently, the war expanded across West Asia and the attacks triggered the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in inflation and fuel shortages across Asia.

This primer from the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines explains the war, its massive impacts on Filipinos, and the need for people’s resistance and how we can support them.