On 21 November 2024, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) through its Chief Information Officer Marco Valbuena, strongly condemned the US government and military for outright intervention in Philippine affairs in the South China Sea by directing naval operations in the Ayungin Shoal through the Command and Control Fusion Center (US Task Force Ayungin).
On the same day, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) through its International Office, lambasted the US for creating the Task Force Ayungin to enhance military interoperability amidst successive typhoons that devastated entire communities.
The US, through its Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III, on a visit to Palawan, admitted only on 20 November the stationing of American soldiers and military advisers in the command and control center located inside the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) headquarters in Palawan province. This facility is among many US military facilities around the country that are not officially acknowledged under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), making their existence illegal even under Philippine laws.
This “command and control”, in military context meaning having the overarching authority to set strategic direction and command over tactical operations, strongly suggests that it is the US Pentagon and military itself that is directing the naval and maritime operations and maneuvers being conducted by the AFP and the Philippine Coast Guard in the Ayungin Shoal and the South China Sea, according to Valbuena.
In a vain attempt to diminish the impact of the revelation, the regime’s National Security Adviser Eduardo Año on 22 November told reporters the US had no “direct participation” in Ayungin resupply missions and that the US is just “helping by giving information.”
On 22 November, the CPP said that the presence and intervention of American soldiers in internal military operations are indicators of the lack of independence in the Philippines’ foreign relations and the US dragging of the Philippines in its brazen provocations with China.
Ayungin Shoal has been the center of several standoffs between the coast guards of China and the Philippines this year. The Philippines maintains the shipwrecked BRP Sierra Madre as a military outpost there. The AFP and the US have used these standoffs to justify US military intervention (through the Mutual Defense Treaty) and to rationalize the growing presence not only of the US but also of Japan, Australia, and NATO allies in the South China Sea.
The NDFP expresses solidarity with the Filipino people “..who continue to bear the brunt of successive disasters exacerbated by climate change and the inept response of the Marcos Jr. government.
The CPP concludes, “The Filipino people must protest the US Task Force Ayungin and demand the immediate removal of US soldiers and military advisers in the said command and control center, and the dismantling of all military facilities of the US in Palawan and around the country. They must also protest the newly signed General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), an agreement supposedly for ‘intelligence sharing,’ which will allow the existence of American spies to brazenly operate within the country.