US-Philippines relations: Kamala Harris in Manila vows Washington’s ‘unwavering commitment’

President Marcos said he can’t ‘see a future for the Philippines that does not include the United States’

Harris is the highest-ranking US official to visit Manila since President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr took power in June

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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr shakes hands with US Vice-President Kamala Harris at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila on Monday. Photo: Pool via AP

Published: 3:47pm, 21 Nov 2022Updated: 4:11pm, 21 Nov 2022

The United States has an “unwavering” commitment to the Philippines, US Vice-President Kamala Harris told the country’s president on Monday during a visit aimed at countering China and rebuilding ties that were fractured over human rights abuses in the Southeast Asian nation.

Harris is the highest-ranking US official to visit Manila since President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr took power in June, signalling a growing rapport between the long-time allies after years of frosty relations under his Beijing-friendly predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

She also met her Philippine counterpart Sara Duterte, the daughter of the former leader whose deadly drug war sparked an international investigation into alleged human rights abuses.

Protesters carry placards and shout slogans during a demonstration in Manila on Monday against the visit of US Vice-President Kamala Harris. Photo: AFP

“We stand with you in defence of international rules and norms as it relates to the South China Sea,” Harris told Marcos at the start of talks in the presidential palace in Manila.

“An attack on the Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke the US mutual defence commitment … that is our unwavering commitment to the Philippines.”

Marcos said he did not “see a future for the Philippines that does not include the United States”.

The US has a long and complex relationship with the Philippines – and the Marcos family. Marcos’s dictator father ruled the former US colony for two decades with the support of Washington, which saw him as a Cold War ally.