South China Sea: how Marcos Jnr’s pushback against Beijing turned him into ‘most sought after leader’ in US

A 10-minute phone call between Biden and Marcos in 2022 has changed the course of Washington-Manila ties that slumped under Duterte’s presidency

The Philippine leader’s efforts to publicise Beijing’s actions in the disputed waterway have elevated his stature among the US and its allies

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US President Joe Biden (right) with his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jnr at the White House in May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 12:59pm, 31 May 2024

As soon as it became clear that Ferdinand Marcos Jnr had won the Philippine presidential election in May 2022, the nation’s ambassador to the US was asked by the White House when President Joe Biden should give him a congratulatory call.

“The sooner you make the call, the better for our relationship,” ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos recalled in an interview. Biden called from Air Force One two days after the election, holding a friendly 10-minute exchange with Marcos that “really set the tone for our relationship with the United States,” Romualdez said.

The tone, from the US perspective, desperately needed changing. Rodrigo Duterte, who preceded Marcos had tilted away from Washington and repeatedly questioned the Southeast Asian nation’s decades-old alliance with the US.

Yet even American officials have been surprised by just how much Marcos has shifted the Philippines back towards the US since he took office roughly two years ago. While Marcos in no way wants to be seen as a US pawn, one official said, he was disillusioned by China’s actions in the South China Sea and is fully on board with strengthening ties with Washington.

“Many expected Marcos to shift back towards the Philippines’ traditional close ties with the US,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC think tank. “But he has gone much farther, undertaking a generational modernisation of the alliance to defend against Chinese aggression.”

Marcos’ outspoken pushback on China, highlighted by his efforts to publicise confrontations between the two countries in the South China Sea, has turned him into somewhat of a star among the US and its allies.