FFPS: “America first” means US-led war first
We hereby share a statement published by Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS).
Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS) strongly denounces US’ continued war-mongering in Asia-Pacific and Trump’s administration’s persistent funding of war crimes in the Philippines. Despite Trump’s suspension to ‘all foreign aid’, the US unfroze military aid to Marcos Jr. and other despotic US agents and allies, showing that ‘America first’ in reality means US-led war first.
On January 20, Donald Trump imposed a 90-day suspension on ‘foreign aid programs’ pending review for ‘efficiency’ and whether the these are ‘in line with US foreign policy’. This included mostly ‘soft-power’ mechanisms like US Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID has long been used globally to promote economic policies, political and cultural influence favorable to the US. As a result, many countries in the Global South were forced to heavily rely on USAID for essential health services and food programs. The abrupt suspension of such aid puts people at risk of starvation and disease, highlighting the rottenness of US imperialism, which puts profit over people as it tries to assert its dominance through strong-arming and military means.
This is highlighted by the US unfreezing $5.3 billion in aid for military use, “counter-insurgency”, and “anti-narcotics” operations. A big part of this unfrozen military aid will go to strategic US allies and agents, such as the Philippines and Israel which have committed countless war crimes in line with US imperialist interests. Meanwhile countries that heavily rely on USAID are further pressured to bow down to US imperialism.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) alone will get $336 million for the ‘modernization’ of its forces. The ‘modernization’ funds might as well be called ‘martial law’ funds, as the US-backed Marcos administration and the AFP use these to impose a de-facto martial law in the rural areas of the Philippines. Peasants and other civilians face arbitrary arrests, abductions, torture and killings, while many entire villages are facing hamletting—effectively turning them into prison camps— and US-supplied bombs and artillery pieces indiscriminately pound civilian areas, destroying both land and life.
The reported areal bombings and indiscriminate strafing by the AFP in Oriental Mindoro and Bukidnon province at the beginning of March are just the latest in a series of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations. An overwhelming amount of evidence presented to the 2024 International People’s Tribunal found the Marcos Jr. and Duterte regimes guilty of war crimes against the Filipino people and highlighted the complicity of the U.S. in these IHL violations.
Whether through USAID, military aid or other means, Trump—like past administrations—only represents the US monopoly capitalist ruling class scrambling to assert US imperialism’s dominance in the world and protect their profits. As the peoples of the world are at risk of heightened starvation, epidemics, genocide and other attacks by US imperialism and US-led war, there is an urgent need for us to strengthen our struggle against US imperialist domination.
It is essential for all anti-imperialists to link with and support the various national liberation struggles around the world that are asserting their right for genuine independence and self-determination. In the Philippines the revolutionary movement, represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and its allied organizations, is the strongest force fighting US imperialism and preventing it from using the Philippines as a springboard for further aggression in Asia-Pacific. No empty rhetoric of ‘America first’ and US-led war can stand against a people united for genuine national and social liberation.
