Manila, April 8, 2022—Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the U.S. military gathered today to celebrate the successful completion of Balikatan 22, the 37th iteration of the annual bilateral exercise. Over the last two weeks, nearly 9,000 exercise participants from the AFP and U.S. military trained shoulder-to-shoulder from the northern coast of Luzon to Palawan, focusing…
A Chinese embassy official once told a Philippine diplomat, “Why don’t you get closer to a friendly neighbour rather than a distant cousin?” Of course he was referring to the relationship between the Philippines and China vis a vis the former and the United States. On another occasion a US official, on the same topic similarly quipped, “Yes, you cannot…
In the Korean War (1950-1953) between the United Nations coalition led by the military forces of the United States and South Korea against North Korea backed up by Chinese troops, the Philippines sent 3 battalions of some 7,000 personnel equipped, supplied, placed by and fought under U.S. operational command (The PMA post-WWII Class of 1951 had an early graduation, were…