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
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
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
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
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