On April 19 and 20, the Philippine army’s 79th Infantry Battalion killed 19 people in Toboso, on Negros Island. The killings came as Washington and Manila launched Balikatan 2026, their largest war games yet.
The massacre took place in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental. Local reports cited by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines said the operation also forcibly displaced more than 653 residents from 168 households in farming communities in Barangays Salamanca and San Jose.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines called it a military encounter with the New People’s Army. But the Communist Party of the Philippines said the dead included 10 NPA fighters and nine unarmed or noncombatants: a journalist, student leaders, farmer advocates, overseas human rights workers, local residents and two children.
Among the nine were Roel Sabillo, 19; community journalist R.J. Nichole Ledesma, 30; Alyssa Alano, a University of the Philippines Diliman student councilor; Maureen Keil Santuyo, 24, of the National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth; Errol Wendel Chen, 24, of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura; Jemina Gumadlas, 15; Lyle Prijoles, 40, of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines from San Francisco; Kai Sorem, 26, from Washington state; and Dexter Patajo, 17.
Ledesma was a writer and editor with the local alternative media outfit Paghimutad-Negros and the Negros Island regional coordinator of Altermidya. Alano was conducting community work and immersion with farming communities. Anakbayan USA said Sorem was a musician and activist who helped launch Anakbayan South Seattle and had returned to the Philippines to serve oppressed and exploited communities.
Journalists, students, farmer advocates and community workers are branded “terrorists” or “communist sympathizers” and then treated as military targets.
The AFP’s story shifted. According to the CPP statement, the military first claimed seven firearms were recovered, then raised the number to 20, then 24, to make it appear that all those killed were armed combatants. The CPP also said the AFP forcibly evacuated local residents, cordoned them off, and blocked reporters and independent investigators from speaking with them.
The Philippine Commission on Human Rights opened an investigation and said that “in case of doubt, persons shall be presumed civilians.” ICHRP called for an impartial investigation into the killings and forced evacuation.
BAYAN USA later reported that an autopsy led by forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun found evidence contradicting the AFP’s “armed encounter” story, including mishandled bodies, evidence problems and gunshot wounds from the back.
This is what U.S. “security” means in the Philippines: repression at home and missiles aimed abroad.
Washington arms and trains the Philippine military. The same force kills farmers, students, journalists, workers and organizers at home while the Pentagon sets up the Philippines as a base for U.S. war plans against China.
Balikatan rehearses war
The U.S. military is turning the Philippines into a forward missile base for war on China. Under the cover of “defense” and “security cooperation,” Washington is again using a formerly colonized country as a launchpad for imperialist war, with Taiwan as the immediate pretext.
Balikatan 2026 is the largest U.S.-Philippines war exercise to date. More than 17,000 troops from the Philippines, the United States, Australia, Japan, Canada, France and New Zealand took part, with 17 more countries observing. The exercise covered command and control, maritime security, coastal defense, combined fires, ship-to-shore supply offloads and movement of equipment across Luzon.
No government has released the cost of this year’s Balikatan war games, but the drills likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The Costs of War Project estimates that the U.S. spends about $260 billion a year on its military buildup across the Indo-Pacific — more than $3.4 trillion since 2012 — to preserve U.S. domination of the region.
Every missile fired is a payout to the weapons monopolies. Every new launch site, port facility and fuel corridor is built at the people’s expense for a war plan written by the Pentagon. The Filipino people are handed the danger; U.S. arms makers, contractors and banks get the profits.
Missiles on Philippine soil
On May 5, U.S. forces in the Philippines fired a Tomahawk cruise missile from Tacloban City Airport in Leyte, striking a target roughly 370 miles away. Two days earlier, U.S. and Philippine forces displayed land-based anti-ship missiles in Batanes, about 100 miles south of Taiwan, on the Luzon Strait — a key sea lane in any U.S. war plan around Taiwan.
These are not ordinary drills. Washington is placing missiles, ports, runways, fuel routes and command posts across the Philippines. The old U.S. bases were formally closed after mass struggle in 1991. Now the Pentagon is back through “rotational access,” contractors, port access, joint exercises and EDCA — the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which opens Philippine military sites to U.S. forces.
The Marcos Jr. government is not defending Philippine sovereignty. It is handing that sovereignty to the Pentagon. The same buildup aimed at China also strengthens the U.S.-backed military machine used against workers, farmers, Indigenous communities and activists inside the Philippines.
Taiwan is the excuse for encirclement
Taiwan is the excuse for the buildup. Batanes and northern Luzon face Taiwan, and the Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel would be central routes in any U.S. war plan.
The issue is not that China is crossing the Pacific to surround the United States. It is that the United States is crossing the Pacific to surround China. Washington calls this “deterrence.” The Filipino people are told it is “defense.” Their islands are being turned into firing positions.
EDCA gives the legal cover. Washington says these are not U.S. bases. But U.S. troops can rotate in, pre-position weapons, use airports, move fuel and direct operations. It is the old colonial base system under a new name.
Japan returns with missiles
Japanese combat troops joined Balikatan for the first time. They fired two Type-88 surface-to-ship missiles from Ilocos Norte, on the northwestern tip of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. The missiles sank a retired Philippine Navy corvette roughly 45 miles offshore, in waters between the Philippines and Taiwan.
Japan colonized Taiwan for 50 years, invaded and occupied large parts of China, carried out the Nanjing Massacre, and occupied the Philippines during World War II. Now Washington is bringing Japanese militarism back into the region under the banner of “security cooperation.”
China’s Foreign Ministry denounced the missile firing, saying Japan had “sent military forces overseas and fired offensive missiles” instead of reckoning with its history as an aggressor.
Japanese militarism is being revived as a junior partner in the U.S. war drive against China. Washington is rebuilding a military arc through Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, the Philippines, Guam and Australia — with the Philippines as a launchpad.
Economy tied to war
China now challenges U.S. dominance in the technologies behind chips, artificial intelligence, computer systems, data centers and advanced weapons. That is what Washington is trying to block.
In April, Washington and Manila announced a 4,000-acre “Economic Security Zone” in New Clark City, inside the Luzon Economic Corridor. Reuters reported that the project is part of a U.S.-led plan to lock down the minerals, factories, computer systems and data centers behind chips, artificial intelligence and advanced weapons.
But even as Washington pushes the Philippines into its war bloc, Manila is turning to China for help. The U.S. war on Iran in West Asia has disrupted fuel and fertilizer supplies across Asia. Manila asked Beijing not to restrict fertilizer exports. Chinese diesel exports to the Philippines surged, and fertilizer shipments rose too.
That is the contradiction Washington cannot erase. The U.S. wants the Philippines as a base, Taiwan as a trigger and China as the target. The Filipino people are being put in the line of fire.
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