After installing Expanded Defense Cooperation Agreements (EDCAs) in nine different sites in the Philippines between 2014 under former President Benigno Aquino III and current President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., both the US and Philippine administrations have drawn flaks from peasant and other progressive organizations particularly in Tarlac province, Central Luzon, in reaction to a new, ambitious project called Pax Silica.

With inflation rate easing to 6.5% in July 2026, the Philippines remained scarred by a 4.8% unemployment and 11% poverty alongside 52% self-rated poverty or more than half of the population. Compare the country’s low economic growth to the high intensity of political infighting among the country’s ruling elite particularly between the Ilocos-based Marcos dynasty and Davao-based Dutertes – and one may conclude that politics is going askew. Meanwhile, the US-Israel war against

The war on Iran was originally a project of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would be backed later by US President Donald Trump. While Iran suffered severe military and economic losses during the armed conflict, the Tehran government achieved a major geopolitical victory.