Progressive groups in the Philippines and abroad denounced expanding military intervention of Australia in the internal matters of the Philippines that complement the military dominance of the United States in the country.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), a broad coalition of progressive sectoral organizations, on August 30, 2025, condemned Australia’s launching multiple war games deploying large numbers of troops, culminating in the recently concluded “Operation Alon 2025”.
“Australia is not only taking part in the largest joint military exercises in the West Philippine Sea but is also negotiating an agreement allowing it to deploy troops and set up military facilities in Philippine territory, including possible missile systems,” Bayan stated. On August 22, 2025, Australian defense minister Richard Marles and Philippines defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro signed a Statement of Intent for Enhanced Defense Cooperation which sets the goal of signing a “Defense Cooperation Agreement (DFA)” by 2026.
This agreement, like the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the US, undermines Philippine sovereignty by allowing the permanent deployment of Australian troops, unrestricted access to territory and resources, and extra-territorial rights to store weapons, missiles, and potentially nuclear arms. The National Democratic Front of the Philippines(NDFP)-Australia and the NDFP-Palawan, in recently released separate statements, condemned the Australia-Philippines Operation Alon 25 which staged live-fire drills deploying ATMOS self-propelled artillery, M777A2 howitzers, Javelin anti-tank missile systems and fighter jets to simulate a full-on military siege.
More than 3,600 troops from the Philippines, Australia, the United States and Canada participated in these operations in the joint areas of Palawan and Nueva Ecija in respectively the AFP Northern and Western Luzon Commands. “Alon 2025 is Australia’s largest troop deployment to Southeast Asia since the East Timorese crisis of 1999 where Australia once sent its forces to secure US interests in the region. Alon 2025 lays bare the same role Australia played in East Timor: the armed lackey of US imperialism,” NDFP-Australia declared.
“The people of Palawan must call for an end to the imperialist instigation of war. At present, the geopolitical and military situation in the Indo-Pacific region is intensifying, particularly in the West Philippine Sea, due to the long-standing provocations of the US and China’s growing impatience with these provocations, carried out in collusion with the puppet Philippine government and other countries in the first island chain of the Asia-Pacific,” said Leona Paragua, spokesperson of NDFP-Palawan.