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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
April 3, 2025 | 7:07pm
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 25th Division Artillery, 25th Infantry Division, load a M119A3 Light Towed Howitzer 105mm during a combined arms live-fire exercise during Balikatan 2022 on Colonel Ernesto Rabina Air Base, Tarlac province, Philippines, March 31, 2022. Balikatan is an annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. Military designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, trust, and cooperation built over decades of shared experiences. Balikatan 22 is the 37th and largest-ever iteration of the exercise and coincides with the 75th anniversary of the U.S.-Philippine security cooperation and a shared commitment to advancing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S.Army photo by Spc. Darbi Colson / 28th Public Affairs Detachmen
MANILA, Philippines — To address modern challenges, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Thursday, April 3, that this year’s annual Balikatan exercises will prepare the military for malign influence operations and information warfare.
AFP Spokesperson Francel Padilla said that this year’s Balikatan will include both kinetic and non-kinetic exercises. In addition to training with physical equipment, there will also be cyber exercises.
These cyber exercises will focus on combating networks of misinformation and disinformation.
“Initingnan po natin diyan ‘no, iyong malign influence that are being used,” Padilla said.
(We will look there, the malign influence that is being used.)
As the country grapples with China for control over the West Philippine Sea, Manila is also facing a battle in the online space, where disinformation about the dispute continues to proliferate.
The Philippine government has acknowledged that it is also engaged in an information warfare with China over the West Philippine Sea.
Reports have found China’s malign operations often paint the Philippines as a disrupter of peace in the region, claiming that the country was acting at the behest of the United States.
The Philippine government has since employed a transparency initiative to show the world what China’s encouragement in Philippine waters looks like.
Despite this, China has maintained its claim over the waterways.
The Balikatan exercises are annual military training sessions between the Philippines and the US, as well as other participating countries.
AFP Chief Romeo Brawner has dubbed this year’s Balikatan Exercises a “full battle test.”
In a recent visit to the Philippines, US Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to help Manila build military deterrence in the Indo-Pacific Region.
The US and the Philippines’ Department of National Defense have agreed to reduce cyber vulnerabilities.
“Enhanced cyber capability and capacity will enable greater information and intelligence-sharing, improve our lethality, and facilitate increasingly advanced operational coordination,” the two agencies said in a joint statement.
