Those US equipment are there for show, if the US are serious they should have taught us how to used it and given to us. Like my previous post the American don't trust us, they thought we're monkeys that aren't capable of operating those so called sophisticated machine.
There you have it bro, the Philippine surrender, just like the arbitration result it's just a pieces of paper with NO Value. Carpio want to stay relevant, nobody listen to him cause we know that he is a influence peddler. His performance record in the Supreme Court are laughable, he clearly sold his soul to the oligarch.
To justify American presence you need to create a crisis, you need to connect the dot, Philippine is task to make a scene to rally local support, BUT it backfire as the promise support coming from the US doesn't justify the sacrifice we're making. So they need to put up a good show (Balikatan) to convince us that the American are there to support us and Marcos did the right thing. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Marcos had little to show for in his 2 years in office, so like his family nemesis the Aquinos had done, he wave the flag of nationalism to cover up his incompetency.
1, HIMARS launchers are also PRsM and ATACAMS launchers. It means targeting ships and island bases nearby from rather annoying survivable and cheap launchers.
Not unless Philippines wants to escalate the war to the Philippines main islands.
(1)Well, since they're there, you're essentially assuming they're going to fire.