(ForeignPolicy) The election of the Philippines’ new president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in May 2022 has proven exceptionally significant for Washington’s security alliances in the Indo-Pacific. Marcos, the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has prioritized the maintenance of healthy ties to the United States just as his father did during the Cold War. This marks a sharp departure from the foreign policy of Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who sought to systematically dismantle the U.S.-Philippines alliance, decrease Manila’s reliance on Washington, and diversify the country’s partnerships to include new opportunities with China and Russia.
Marcos’s return to normal alliance relations with the United States was not an abrupt nor surprising decision. Indeed, toward the end of Duterte’s tenure, it had already become apparent that the latter’s pro-China policies were failing spectacularly, as Beijing pressed ahead with its territorial expansion against its maritime neighbors in the South China Sea. China’s encirclement of Philippines-administered Thitu Island (also known as Pag-asa) with hundreds of militia boats, authorization of the Chinese Coast Guard to fire on non-Chinese vessels throughout the South China Sea, and mooring of more than 200 Chinese “fishing” militia boats at the disputed Whitsun Reef made Duterte’s policy to cooperate with China in the South China Sea appear not only out of touch with reality but even dangerous to Philippine national security… Read More
