Photo Credit: Tomas Ragina (Shutterstock)

The U.S. military is getting out of hand in fueling wars abroad–even the ones that haven’t begun. Last month, Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin visited the Philippines, where they agreed to boost the country's military by $500 million yearly for five years–a total of $2.5 billion–for what some claim feels like a new cold war with China.

The U.S. and China are so-called rivals–exactly for what?

While much of the U.S. competition is economic, everyone from Pentagon leaders to the administration and many folks in Congress are also invested in maintaining U.S. military dominance and are doing everything possible to gain military influence over the Indo-Pacific region. That translates to more militarism, and more military spending, in places like Taiwan, Guam, South Korea – and the Philippines. 

In the eyes of the U.S., China is a political and economic threat. China’s threat also reverberates in culture (for example, Chinatowns persevere across the U.S.), vaccine diplomacy, and sports. (In the Olympic games this year, China and the U.S. tied for the most gold medals.)

Since 2015, the U.S. has given more than $1 billion in military aid funding to the Philippines. The new proposal for $2.5 billion in five years is a major acceleration.

The Pentagon considers Filipino people dispensable

The Clark Air Force Base is just a few towns away from the capital of Manila. The base opened in 1902 and operated until 1991, switching control between the U.S. and Japan. For over a century, the base’s impacts on the people and the land have been indelible. 

Filipino workers at the bases were exposed to asbestos with no protective gear, and children were harmed by unexploded ordinance, among other abuses. In 1991, Mt. Pinatubo erupted and forced people to take shelter at the Clark Air Force Base to escape. The refugees drank the surrounding water, which over the years caused long-term health complications. A 1993 World Health Organization (WHO) report found that toxic waste at the site included lead, aviation fuel, sewerage, unexploded materials, and radioactive materials.

Rejecting any responsibility for the contamination, the U.S. points to a section of the Status of Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the U.S. that relieves the U.S. from restoring bases to their original condition. 

President Ferdinand Marcos, who took office in 2022, has allowed the U.S. to expand its military presence to four additional bases in the Philippines, bringing the total 9 bases – but has said that no further U.S. expansion is welcome.

To emphasize the Pentagon’s disregard for Filipino lives, in the last few years, the Pentagon ran an anti-vax social media campaign about China’s COVID-19 vaccine. Some posts claimed that there is pork gelatin in the vaccines to dissuade Muslims from taking it. This secret campaign to make China look bad has put civilian lives at risk during a global pandemic.

Let’s put our resources toward a livable future

Filipino alliances like BAYAN USA composed of all types of Filipino workers and peasants are saying they want the U.S. out of the Philippines. Tired of being in the middle of it, Filipinos demand reinvestment into their people and not destruction – especially in light of Typhoon Carina that damaged the streets of metro Manila and key agricultural areas of the Philippines, costing over 1 billion Philippine pesos.

The U.S. should reconsider where $2.5 billion could go domestically and internationally. $500 million per year to the Philippines could address disaster resilience and other longstanding issues for our communities. In the U.S., $500 million could provide more than 170,000 children with healthcare, nearly 40,000 children with preschool education, or 1.24 million households with solar electricity. 

In a time of worsening wildfires and frequent heavy floods, the climate crisis is one of the most urgent threats we face. In a time of increasing insecurity due to war, we must do everything to keep each other safe. Instead of fueling violence against people and our planet, it's time to put our resources toward a livable future for generations to come.

Learn more by watching this CODEPINK webinar featuring NPP’s Alliyah Lusuegro: