It served as a critical support facility for the U.S. war in Vietnam and a transit point for U.S. weapons destined for American military personnel in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
asserted
It → serve → War
That all changed in June of that year, when the Philippine Congress, under pressure from a grassroots anti-bases movement, refused to renew the lease for Subic Bay and other U.S. outposts in that nation.
asserted
Congress → change → nation
After the closing of U.S. bases, military relations between the U.S. and the Philippines were conducted indirectly through arms transfers, joint training exercises, and deployments of Special Operations forces to aid Philippine counterinsurgency efforts, rather than by the permanent presence of tens of thousands of troops.
asserted
relations → conduct → troops
The relationship was codified in 1999, when Washington and Manila entered into a Visiting Forces Agreement, which eased the movement of U.S. troops and equipment in and out of the Philippines and put U.S. personnel in the country under the jurisdiction of U.S. rather than Philippine authorities.
asserted
which → codify → authorities
And this time around, private capital is financing these empire games.
asserted
capital → finance → games
The long-standing U.S. military ties with the Philippines have come at a high price for the residents of that nation.
asserted
ties → stand → nation
Washington’s military and economic interests there have prompted it to look the other way as repressive leaders like Ferdinand Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte engaged in systematic human rights abuses against their own people.
asserted
leaders → prompt → people
To its credit, the Reagan administration eventually cut ties with Marcos — who was overthrown through peaceful protests known as the “People Power” revolt in 1986 — throwing its support behind his democratically elected opponent, Corazon Aquino.
asserted
who → cut → opponent
But there was no such shift with respect to Duterte, whose regime ruled the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, and engaged in extrajudicial killings of thousands of Filipinos, including journalists and land reform activists, all under the guise of a “war on drugs.”
asserted
regime → be → drugs
Duterte is now under indictment by the International Criminal Court, which has cited him for “the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder.”
asserted
which → cite → murder
While Marcos and his family fled the Philippines in the 1980s, his son — Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — returned and, in 2022, won the presidency in a landslide, in part by promising to continue some of the strongman policies introduced by Duterte.
asserted
son → flee → Duterte
According to Human Rights Watch, since the younger Marcos took office
uncertain
Marcos → accord → office
:
Serious human rights violations have continued in the country largely unabated, including arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances by security forces.
asserted
violations → continue → forces
The murderous ‘war on drugs’ has continued, though with fewer killings.
asserted
war → continue → killings
Leftist civil society activists, journalists, environmentalists, Indigenous leaders, trade unionists, and left-wing politicians remain under serious, at times deadly, threat.
asserted
activists → remain → threat
During the Biden presidency, the U.S. expanded a 2014 pact — the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement — which gave the U.S. military access to five major sites in the Philippines.
asserted
which → expand → Philippines
In 2023, the number of bases was expanded to nine.
asserted
number → expand → nine
The State Department has described the scope of the EDCA as authorizing “U.S. forces access to agreed locations in the Philippines on a rotational basis, for security cooperation exercises, joint and combined military training activities, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief activities.”
asserted
Department → describe → exercises
That official summary fails to admit the real reason for the signing of the EDCA: to give the U.S. access to territory that can be used in a future war with China.
asserted
that → fail → China
Building on his predecessor’s enhanced cooperation with the Philippines, President Donald Trump, who had been a staunch Duterte supporter, has pursued even tighter ties with Marcos’s government.
asserted
who → build → government
This has been driven, in significant part, by the desire to use the Philippines as a platform for potential U.S. military interventions in the Pacific region and further economic penetration of Asia.
asserted
This → drive → Asia
As part of the accelerating security partnership between the U.S. and the Philippines, military activities at Subic Bay have resumed.
asserted
activities → accelerate → Bay
But this time, formal access has been secured by a private investment firm, Cerberus Capital Management, which controls the area through a 50-year lease granted through collaboration with a Philippine company, Agila.
asserted
which → secure → company
A report by the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, a member of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, summarized current activities at Subic Bay:
asserted
report → summarize → Bay
In mid-2025, the U.S. Congress approved a plan to build a forward operating base and ammunition production facility in Subic Bay.
asserted
Congress → approve → Bay
It is projected to be the world’s largest weapons hub.
asserted
It → project → ?
The shipyard [is home to] HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, deep sea fiber optic data cables manufacturer Sub Com, defense contractor V2X and the Philippine Navy, which operates a portion of the facility.
asserted
which → operate → facility
Cerberus has strong ties to the Trump administration, first and foremost through its founder, Stephen Feinberg, who is deputy secretary of the Department of War, second in command at the Pentagon behind Pete Hegseth.
asserted
who → have → Hegseth
In that role, Feinberg oversees the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, which makes loans to military tech companies, many of which are current or former Cerberus clients.
asserted
many → oversee → which
Feinberg “earned” his position the old-fashioned way — by giving millions to Rebuilding America Now, a super PAC devoted to supporting Trump, and hosting a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser, the proceeds of which also went to support candidate Trump in 2016.
asserted
proceeds → earn → 2016
Bloomberg News has identified four other former Cerberus executives now in key positions at the Pentagon: David Lorch, director of the OSC; George Kollitides, a special government employee who is simultaneously a director of D. Boral Acquisition, a company that brokers mergers and acquisitions in the weapons sector; and senior Pentagon advisers John Gallagher and Tom Rakusan.
asserted
that → identify → sector
On the other side of the revolving door, Cerberus has hired major Republican figures like former Treasury Secretary John Snow and former Vice President Dan Quayle, who serves as chair of the company’s global investment unit.
asserted
who → revolve → unit
Given these connections, the Pentagon is all-in behind Cerberus’s activities in the Philippines.
asserted
Pentagon → give → Philippines
But this has prompted a backlash.
asserted
this → prompt → backlash
Activists in the Philippines and beyond are speaking out against the role of Cerberus, calling for public pension funds to withdraw their investments in the company for underwriting the militarization of the Philippines.
asserted
funds → speak → Philippines
Another important avenue of increased cooperation between the U.S. and the Marcos government is the Philippines’ participation in Pax Silica, a U.S.-initiated cartel that the State Department describes as its “flagship effort on AI and supply chain security, advancing new economic security consensus among allies and trusted partners.”
asserted
Department → increase → allies
And by “supply chain security,” the declaration primarily means “reducing dependence on China” for critical minerals needed to feed and sustain the computing power now central to the Pentagon and the U.S. arms industry.
asserted
declaration → mean → Pentagon
In addition to the Philippines, there are 24 other participants in Pax Silica, including two other key Asian partners, India and Japan, as well as Taiwan, which is an associate member of the cartel.
asserted
which → be → cartel
Jacob Helberg, a former adviser to military tech giant Palantir who now serves as the State Department’s point person on Pax Silica, has stressed that the initiative goes well beyond just securing the supply of specific critical resources.
asserted
initiative → serve → resources
“If the 20th century ran on oil and steel, the 21st century runs on [computing power] and the minerals that feed it,” he said.
asserted
he → run → it
…and 55 more, not listed.
The Aporia
