Marco Rubio is a warmonger and an agent of imperialist aggression and terrorism. The Filipino people do not welcome his visit.
The US Secretary of State is in Manila for the ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meetings. As the chief foreign policy architect of the fascist Trump regime, Rubio is among the most accountable for the human rights atrocities and blatant violation of national sovereignty and international law brought about by US imperialist intervention and aggression.
His five-day visit to Manila from July 19 to 23 is not about “regional safety or prosperity,” as peddled by the US State Department and its local puppet, the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration. Rather, his visit is meant to further solidify the Philippines as a frontline launching pad for US geopolitical provocations in the Asia Pacific. Rubio is among those directly responsible for designing and executing US policies that escalate military tensions across the region, deliberately dragging the Filipino people into the crossfire of destructive inter-imperialist conflicts just to maintain Washington’s global hegemony.
Additionally, Rubio’s recent venomous remarks concerning “far-left terrorism” echo the desperate, warmongering propaganda of a declining empire. His rhetoric, delivered during the so-called Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism convened by the US State Department, serves as a direct, dangerous green light for US puppet regimes to escalate their brutal campaign of state-sponsored terror against their own people. By using the bogeyman of “terrorism” to describe legitimate political dissent and resistance, Rubio provides international cover for the rampant human rights violations being committed daily under the guise of counterinsurgency/counterterrorism. Southeast Asia is already among the most politically repressive regions in the world.
In the Philippines, this translates to intensified red-tagging, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, trumped-up criminal charges, illegal arrests and other forms of political repression against critics of the US-Marcos regime. Emboldened by hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid, Marcos’s counterinsurgency campaign has intensified its attacks against social activists, trade unionists, peasant and indigenous leaders, development workers and human rights defenders. Rubio’s statements actively fuel the fascist state machinery that murders and oppresses Filipinos fighting for land reform, economic development, national industrialization, democracy, peace and freedom.
Rubio’s visit also comes at a time when Filipino and American officials are ramping up negotiations over the controversial Economic Security Zone as part of the US imperialist project Pax Silica. The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has reportedly already begun issuing notices to barangays in Capas, Tarlac that this plunderous project will displace. We expect Rubio to follow up on these discussions with Malacañang, which will turn over more than 1,600 hectares of land for critical minerals processing and advanced manufacturing, meant to serve the US’ military-industrial needs.
We condemn Rubio’s visit and strongly denounce the sham security and development cooperation and partnership with US imperialism that brings about worsening subversion of our national sovereignty, greater plunder of our natural resources, more displacement of our communities, and escalating political repression of our people.
As the presidential State of the Nation Address (SONA) draws near, we denounce and demand an end to the unabashed puppetry of the Marcos Jr. regime to US imperialism. We call on the Filipino people to resolutely struggle to defend our national freedom and dignity as a people against all forms of foreign intervention and domination.