• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Manila to support against Chinese influence in the region.
• China asserts nearly full ownership of the disputed area, and its military activity in the territory has escalated.
• Despite protests from Beijing, American troops have been patrolling the maritime area alongside Philippine forces since November.

As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Manila to bolster support against Chinese influence in the region, protesters rallied against American presence in the Philippines on Tuesday.

Under a decades-long alliance, the Philippines serves as Washington’s key security partner in Asia, enabling the US to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays and construct and operate facilities on Philippine military bases.

Over the past two years, the partnership has expanded under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who granted permission in February last year for American troops to expand their presence in the country.

China asserts nearly full ownership of the disputed area, and its military activity in the territory has escalated, frequently intruding into the waters claimed by the Philippines, known as the West Philippine Sea.

“These waterways are critical to the Philippines, to its security, to its economy, but they’re also critical to the interests of the region, the United States and the world,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with his Philippine counterpart Enrique Manalo.

“That’s why we stand with the Philippines and stand by our ironclad defense commitments, including under the mutual defense treaty.”

The 1951 agreement binds the US to defend its ally in the event of an external attack.

Chinese ships have regularly targeted Philippine vessels in parts of the South China Sea internationally acknowledged as belonging to the Philippines.

Despite protests from Beijing, American troops have been patrolling the maritime area alongside Philippine forces since November. China contends that the US is not a party to the maritime dispute.

“Article 4 of that treaty extends to any armed attacks on Filipino armed forces, on public vessels, on aircraft, and that would include its coast guard and that would also be anywhere in the South China Sea,” Blinken said.

As he informed reporters about the “extraordinary expansion” in their partnership, protesters in Manila carried banners with messages such as “US troops out of the Philippines,” “Blinken war criminal, not welcome,” and “No to US intervention in PH and Asia.”

Civil society, including BAYAN — the Philippines’ largest alliance of grassroots groups — organized the demonstration near the Presidential Palace ahead of Blinken’s meeting with Marcos.

In a statement, BAYAN accused Marcos of “advancing the geopolitical interest of the US in the region” and “offering the Philippines as an extension” of the US military network.

“The country’s assertion of sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea against China’s aggression should not involve the opportunistic meddling of a former colonizer whose real motive is to preserve and expand its imperialist hegemony in the Asia-Pacific,” the group said.

It also highlighted Gaza, where Israel, another key ally of Washington, has carried out daily airstrikes and land assaults, resulting in the deaths of over 30,000 Palestinians since October.

BAYAN said the US was “the main supporter and enabler of the ongoing genocide in Palestine” and was “actively fanning proxy wars and conflicts in various parts of the world.”

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