The national government has called out individuals criticizing the recent visit of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Manila.
National Security Council (NSC) Asst. Director General Jonathan Malaya particularly slammed the National Democratic Front (NDF) for calling the Philippines and Ukraine as “puppets of the United States.”
“As a responsible member of the international community and ardent advocate of the rules-based international order, the Philippines is committed to help end the war in Ukraine; how that becomes subservience to US interests boggles the mind,” Malaya said on Friday, June 7.
Malaya pointed out that the meeting of Zelenskyy and Marcos only proved the Philippines’ continued support for multilateral peace efforts, including the United Nation’s call for an end to hostilities between Ukraine and Russia.
He then turned the tables on the CPP-NPA-NDF, saying that they have been engaged in an armed insurgency that has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Filipinos in more than 50 years.
“In reality, it is the CPP-NPA-NDF who are puppets to their obsolete and discredited Chinese Maoist ideology that has brought nothing but war and terrorism to our country in more than five decades of their insurgency,” Malaya said.
“The Ukraine and the Philippines both support the international rules-based order and that is the basis of our bilateral relations. We work with all countries who support international law,” he added.
Last June 3, Zelenskyy met with President Marcos Jr. in Malacanang to seek the Philippines’ support for a peace summit in Switzerland later this month as the Ukrainian leader hopes to end Russia’s invasion of his country. Marcos reportedly agreed to joining the summit.
During their meeting, Zelenskyy said that he saw “similarities” between the Philippines’ maritime territorial conflict with China, and Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The NDF described the visit as part of the United States’ “imperialist war designs” to portray Marcos as the “new poster boy for its proxy war versus China.”
The political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) further accused the US of positioning the Philippines as a key player of Washington’s broader strategy to counter China by “aligning Marcos Jr. as a parallel of Zelenskyy.”