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 president Rodrigo Duterte suspends the termination process of the Visiting Forces Agreement, a military pact between the Philippines and the United States. 2021-07-30
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
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
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
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay states that the United States remains our "closest friend," but that the Philippines wants to break away and forge closer ties with other nations. 2016-10-22
In response to criticism of his government's extrajudicial killings of 1,800 people since July, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte says that U.S. forces advising the Armed Forces of the Philippines against an Islamic insurgency in Mindanao are doing more harm than good and must leave the country, saying, ”I do not want a rift with America, but they have to go," during a speech in Manila. 2016-09-12