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
The Philippines permits the U.S. Armed Forces access to an additional four military bases, thereby expediting the full implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. 2023-02-2
Philippine and U.S. troops resume their annual Balikatan military exercises following last year's cancellation of the event due to the pandemic. 2021-04-12
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
President Rodrigo Duterte suspends for six months the termination of the Philippines–United States Visiting Forces Agreement. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. says the decision comes due to "political and other developments in the region". 2020-06-2
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
The Philippines Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana suspends participation in any joint patrols with the United States in the disputed South China Sea. Lorenzana will ask a detachment of 107 U.S. troops providing counterterrorism assistance on the southern island of Mindanao to leave as President Rodrigo Duterte requested. 2016-10-7