'We're sitting ducks'

Residents in northern Philippines fear being caught in US-China rift

- Mara Cepeda

There was a rumbling in the ground, and homes shook in the sleepy coastal village in northern Philippines where American and Filipino troops were pounding floating targets with artillery in a military exercise repelling a mock naval invasion.

Fisherman Macreno Racadio, 40, heard the explosions on the morning of May 6 as he sat at Gabu Norte village's quiet seaport, his wooden boat among the scores tied up along the shore.

Fisherfolk had been banned from setting out for a week until May 10 from Laoag City, in Ilocos Norte province, while the armed forces of the Philippines and United States conducted two key exercises at the nearby La Paz Sand Dunes.

The annual month-long "Balikatan" or "shoulder-to-shoulder" war games, which kicked off in April and involved some 16,000 Filipino and American soldiers, were held as tensions between Manila and Beijing threatened to boil over in the South China Sea. The allies have been holding the exercises in strategic Philippine locations since 1991.

The 2024 drills were conducted in various areas in the Philippines, along its western coast facing the disputed waterway and up north close to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers as its territory.

Laoag City not only faces the South China Sea but is also located just 408km from the southernmost tip of Taiwan. Ilocos Norte province is the closest on the Philippine mainland to China and is home to more than 609,000 people.

Mr Racadio said village officials had told them not to be afraid when they heard the blasts from the Balikatan exercises. But he could not help but cringe, he said.

"It's like they're preparing for war already," he told The Sunday Times.

"If that happens, we're sitting ducks here." He noted that his village was near the local airport, which could be a prime target if war breaks out.