My Take | American fingerprints all over Manila’s new spat with Beijing
- Former president Duterte’s pro-China tilt was always hard to sustain against the deep-seated pro-US sentiments of the Filipino public
Once may be an accident, twice can still be a coincidence, a third time starts to look like a pattern.
Since Ferdinand Marcos Jnr won the presidential election in May last year, Manila has handed the United States access to four additional military bases; hyped up its maritime disputes with China; and proposed its own code of maritime conduct with Vietnam, Malaysia and others against the progressing work between Asean members and China towards such a code for the South China Sea.
As if on cue, the US said it would back the Philippines all the way. In truth, Washington’s fingerprints are all over the latest provocations. The White House even said America was ready to invoke a 1951 treaty to defend the Philippines. Does anyone expect a war coming?
After pro-China Rodrigo Duterte left office, the country’s tilt back towards Washington, away from Beijing, was to be expected. But few anticipated the speed and lengths to which the new president in Manila was ready to go to placate the Americans. After all, China is still his country’s biggest trade partner.
Two things help explain a lot. One is Marcos’ family name; the other is that the first congratulatory phone call he received from a foreign head of state on winning the presidency was from none other than Joe Biden.
The Marcos family, of course, go way back with the Americans. Marcos Snr was the stereotypical anti-communist right-wing dictator during the Cold War who stole and robbed his country dry while turning it into a client state of the US. He died in exile in Hawaii, along with hundreds of millions of ill-gotten gains. Just as Washington propped up the father’s brutal dictatorship for two decades, so it is now courting the son.
Marcos Jnr has visited Washington twice already. US Vice-President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin have all travelled to Manila during that time.