MANILA — On Wednesday, March 3, 2026, Filipino activists and progressive lawmakers called on the Philippine government to pursue an independent foreign policy in light of surprise military aggression by the United States (US) and Israel against Iran.
At the House of Representatives, lawmakers of the Makabayan bloc filed House Resolution No. 831 urging the government to abrogate military agreements that infringe on the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The US and Israel carried out coordinated military strikes across multiple Iranian cities, including the capital, Tehran, on February 28, 2026.
The military aggression resulted in the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei and retaliatory actions in the region of West Asia.
Read: US military aggression in Venezuela violates int’l human rights law
The agreements outlined in the House resolution are the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), and the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) signed by the governments of the US and the Philippines.
“The House of Representatives urges the Marcos administration to immediately issue clear and unequivocal condemnations of US military aggression against Venezuela and Iran, and to raise these matters in all appropriate international fora, including but not limited to the United Nations and ASEAN,” the resolution reads.
There are currently nine EDCA sites in the Philippines where the US can build facilities and put equipment, supplies, and personnel.
The agreement is supplemental to the 1951 MDT and 1999 VFA.
As stipulated in Article III of the agreement, the US forces may conduct the following activities at the sites: Training, transit, support and related activities, refueling of aircraft, bunkering of vessels, temporary maintenance, temporary accommodation of personnel, communications, prepositioning of equipment, deploying forces, and other activities that both governments may agree upon.
The Department of National Defense spokesperson said that the EDCA sites pose no threat to the country, saying that it is different from US bases.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) meanwhile, marched towards the US Embassy in Manila on March 3, to condemn the pronouncements of the Philippine government and to condemn the US-Israel military aggression. The marching activists were blocked by the police.
Bayan Secretary General Mong Palatino said in a protest that EDCA sites in the Philippines, along with other areas housing US military supplies and equipment, may subject the country to vulnerability in the escalating conflict.
“It is the Americans who control the EDCA sites. It also houses the war equipment of the United States and their troops,” Palatino said. “Mainly, it operates as a US base.”
Under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the military facilities of warring government parties are identified as military objectives.
The house resolution filed by the Makabayan bloc also states: “The continued presence of US military forces and facilities on Philippine soil, far from contributing to genuine national security, exposes the Filipino people to grave and escalating security risks by entangling the country in US military adventurism and making the Philippines a potential target of retaliatory action by nations against whom the US wages war.”
House Resolution 831 also expresses solidarity not only to the people of Iran, but also to Palestine and Venezuela. The signed lawmakers reaffirm their condemnation of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and full accountability for all perpetrators of the war crimes.
Although there has been a ceasefire in Gaza since October 10, 2025, the death toll has continued to rise, reaching more than 72,000 based on Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Nearly 60 percent of the fatalities were children, women, and elderly, and these numbers do not include deaths of those under the rubble, mass graves, or killed by indirect causes.
Read: From Philippines to Palestine: Resisting rampant rights violations
Meanwhile, on January 3, 2026, the United States launched military strikes in Venezuela and abducted its president, Nicholas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is now the acting Venezuelan leader, calling for the return of Maduro and Flores.
Moro activist Amirah Ali Lidasan, chairperson of the indigenous group Sandugo, that the interest behind the blatant warring activities of the US-Israel is to seize control of the natural resources in several countries.
In the 2025 Statistical Review of World Energy, Venezuela has the largest oil reserve in the whole world, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“We have been hearing the accusation of the US for decades, saying that Iran holds nuclear weapons,” Lidasan said. “But if we look in reality, the ones who hold the nuclear arms are the US and Israel, used against the people from other sovereign countries who are asserting their right to self-determination.”
The US is the world’s largest producer of nuclear power, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
“We should let the people of Iran decide what to do with their own governments,” said Palatino, stating that the US-Israel military aggression in Iran is a violation of the right to self-determination.
The right to self-determination — enshrined not only in the UN Charter but also in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — guarantees that peoples may freely determine their political status without external coercion.
It is also in the essence of the House resolution: “A truly independent foreign policy, as mandated by the Philippine constitution, requires that the Philippines extricate itself from military arrangements that subordinate national sovereignty to the strategic interests of a foreign power and that drag the country into conflicts contrary to the Filipino people’s aspirations for peace, justice, and genuine independence.” (AMU, JDS)
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