A former top United States official states that the Department of Defense covertly admits to conducting a mass disinformation campaign targeting the Philippines using social media bots and fake accounts to discredit the safety of Chinese CoronaVac vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic, following public denial of involvement in June. 2024-07-26
Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. announces the government's decision to suspend the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States for at least another six months. 2020-11-11
The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte terminates the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States. Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. confirms that the Embassy of the United States, Manila, has been formally notified. The termination will take effect after 180 days. 2020-02-11
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte bans U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy from entering the country, as both are seeking to enforce sanctions on politicians involved in the prosecution of Philippine Senator and Duterte administration critic Leila de Lima. Duterte also threatens to tighten visa requirements for American citizens should the sanctions go through. 2019-12-27
The Balangiga bells, stolen during the massacre in Balangiga in 1901 during the Philippine–American War, were returned to the Philippines after 117 years under the possession of the United States. 2018-12-11
During the annual State of the Nation Address through the Congress of the Philippines, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has outright demanded that the United States return the controversial Balangiga bells, taken during one of the campaigns of the Philippine–American War as spoils of war. Previous attempts to recover the bells have all failed so far. 2017-07-24
United States State Department blocks the sale of firearms to the Philippines due to concerns of human rights violations. 2016-11-2
Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte says he plans to cut ties with his country's former colonial ruler, the United States, while strengthening ties with China. 2016-10-20