Progressive and revolutionary groups denounced the US-Marcos’s escalation of various forms of the military aggression against the people, including construction of foreign bases, in dozens of towns and villages in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The National Democratic Front (NDF)-Eastern Visayas condemned the Kasangga 2026-02 war games launched in Samar by Australian and Philippine troops last October 19. NDF-EV spokesperson, Ka Celine Manlimbasog, said the nearly month-long war games in Samar serve the US goal of further heating up tensions and provoking war against its rival imperialist China.

Manlimbasog added that the Kasangga war games are an insult to the Waray people, who were only in May disturbed by a US Tomahawk missile fired from Tacloban City toward Luzon. “Like Balikatan, Kasangga will surely also ravage the safety and livelihood of the residents of Hinabangan and nearby towns.”

Earlier, on October 21, Manlimbasog reported that the revolutionary forces severely condemned the 8th Infantry Division for its indiscriminate bombing of the countryside in Northern Samar following four armed clashes between the New People’s Army (NPA) and the AFP’s 20th IB and 19th IB, in Barangays of Poponton (Oct 4), Palanas (Oct 8), Sag-od (Oct 13) and Caputoan (Oct 21).

In Western Samar, in the town of San Jose de Buan, the regime’s US supplied Blackhawk helicopters strafing and missile firing added to the hours-long 46th IB artillery fire, machine gunning and grenade launching in the villages of Hiduroma, San Pedro and Gilutan, after two AFP-NPA encounters. The regime’s forces continued these attacks long after the NPA has left the area, sowing fear among the residents and disrupting their farming activities.

Malimbasog further reports, in Eastern Samar, the AFP’s 87th and 52nd IB continued to set up new camps and maintained old ones in the very centers of the villages in the towns of Dolores, Arteche, Jipapad, Can-avid, Oras, Taft, San Policarpio and Maslog, in violation of international humanitarian law.

In Palawan, on October 24, leaders of the indigenous Malbog together with environmental and other progressive groups vehemently protested the construction of a US military base under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The air base will occupy 300 hectares of ancestral land where the natives reside and obtain their livelihood, express their worship and bury their dead. They also opposed the fake National Greening Project of the Department of Environment, who claimed the project would serve as a “carbon offset” for the many trees felled by the Ipilan Nickel Corporation for its mining operation in Brooke’s Point. In their anger, the participants tore down a US flag to protest the coming of US president Donald Trump for the ASEAN Summit.

Meanwhile, NDF-Negros, on Oct 25, denounced the scheduled live fire exercises of the PA’s 3rd Field Artillery Battalion in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental. Ka Bayani Obrero, NDF-Negros spokesperson, said that the PA also deploys a large number of soldiers to bar residents from the area where the shells are expected to fall, disrupting the people’s farming and grazing activities.

NDF-Negros also reported that  in the towns of Isabela, Moises Padilla and Castellana in Negros Occidental, as well as in Guihulngan City, Canlaon City and Vallehermoso in Negros Oriental, the 62nd and 94th IB has been harassing numerous farmers and their families by raiding their houses and making unlawful detentions and interrogations.

Meanwhile, League of Filipino Students (LFS)-Cebu called for the removal of US military forces and equipment from Lapu-Lapu City and an end to the use of Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base as a center for logistics and the transfer of American forces to the central part of the country. They denounced the alleged use of Mactan-Cebu International Airport as a fuel depot and launch site for warplanes.

In Mindanao, the LFS-Davao protested against the visit of US Ambassador Lee Lipton to Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte on October 22 with the presence of Sen. Robin Padilla, Sen. Christopher Lawrence Go, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte II, and officials of the city and the US embassy. According to LFS-Davao, these visits serve to “expand imperialist influence and deepen foreign intervention in Davao and Mindanao.”