The largest ever contingent of foreign troops in the Philippines will join the US’s annual Balikatan exercises scheduled for April to May. Japan will directly participate with 1,000 troops, along with troops from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and France, according to a report by Ang Bayan on March 21, 2026. Some 18 countries will join as “observers”.
Australian and Japanese troops started conducting non-stop voyages with the US in the Philippines’ territorial waters in February to challenge Chinese vessels. Since 2023, foreign vessels have launched up to 25 such voyages and interventions all over the country. Balikatan exercises also involve large-scale joint military drill between the AFP and the US military. In 2025, over 14,000 troops underwent high-level combat training, including the use of anti-ship missile systems (NMESIS) and other coastal defense and offense mechanisms.
On March 9, 2026, in Burgos town, Pangasinan, in Luzon, more than four thousand Filipino troops took part in the so-called Littoral Defense Live Fire Exercise, in preparation for the Balikatan. This is part of the Combined Arms Training Exercises and preparation of local troops for the US war games series under Balikatan.
In the Visayas, The National Democratic Front (NDF)-Eastern Visayas, condemned the presence of US military troops in Tacloban City for the upcoming Balikatan war exercises. The US troops arrived in the city airport in a US Air Force C-17 to participate in the largest edition of the annual US-PH war exercises. The NDF-EV said it “forms part of the effort by US imperialism and its puppet the Marcos Jr regime to establish the Philippines as a launching pad of war in the Asia- Pacific.
The NDF-EV asserted that aside from attempting to incite regime change in Iran, long a stalwart of resistance against US imperialist subjugation, the US-Zionist Israel war on Iran also aimed to curtail shipments of oil from the country to one of its major buyers, China. It condemns “...the treasonous Ferdinand Marcos Jr for kowtowing to US imperialist interest to establish world hegemony... Marcos continues to welcome US troops, armaments, and war exercises with open arms. He fails to allay fears by Filipinos of being dragged into a war that will cause the most destruction and suffering to the ordinary masses.”
In Mindanao, US troops and the AFP’s 4th ID participated in war games held at the Lumbia Air Base, an EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) site. Ang Bayan said the sudden arrival of foreign troops terrorized the residents. “They worry the city, and the entire Philippines, will get dragged into the US-ignited war in Iran and the Middle East.
The NDF-North Central Mindanao Region strongly condemned the presence of American troops in the city. The American operations at Lumbia are not “humanitarian assistance and disaster relief training” as claimed. The concentration of training at the EDCA site exposes the true militarist intent of their operation, it added.
Besides Lumbia Airport, the AFP and US plan to build a naval base in the 3,000-hectare PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. This will transform Northern Mindanao into a forward base for US aggression, according to the NDF-NCMR. It endangers Filipinos and drags the country into US wars anywhere in the world.