America ready to defend Philippines

 ‘Marcos vows strong relations with U.S.’

THE PHILIPPINES under President Ferdinand Marcos has aligned itself to the United States, a far cry from the previous Duterte administration’s pro-China policy.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

Marcos made this stand  clear  and  firm following a meeting with U.S.    Vice    President   Kamala Harris who was in the country recently. Both Marcos and Harris hailed the “strong and enduring” ties between the Philippines and the United States amid global headwinds.

Harris described the Philippines-U.S. relationship as a “long and enduring one.”

“The relationship between the  Philippines and the United States is a long and enduring one. It is one relationship that is strong for so many reasons. It is the long-standing relationship in terms of the people-to-people ties,” Harris told Marcos. “The basis of our relationship is multifaceted. Our relationship is based on mutual commitment to the economic prosperity of the region and our respective nations.”

Harris, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Puerto Princesa City in Palawan province near the   contested  islands  being claimed by China.

She   reaffirmed   American commitments to the defense  of  the  Philippines. “We must reiterate always that we stand with you in defense of international rules and norms as it relates to the South China Sea. An armed  attack on the Philippines, armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke US Mutual Defense commitments,” Harris told the President.

“The basis of our  relationship is multifaceted. Our relationship is based on mutual commitment to  the  economic  prosperity of the region and our respective nations,” she pointed out.

Harris was referring to the  1951  Manila  Pact,  between the U.S. and countries in the region including the Philippines and Thailand, that stipulates    the     collective    defense principle under an attack.

Her   trip   to   the  Philippines was part of the Biden administration courting an increasingly vital strategic partner as tensions rise with China over Taiwan. Of Washington’s five treaty allies in the  Indo-Pacific,  the  Philippines is closest to Taiwan  and therefore  central to U.S. plans to  deter  and respond  to  potential  Chinese attack on the self-administered island  Beijing  views  as a   wayward  province,  according to the Voice of America.

It also signals an effort to rebuild US–Philippines ties that were fractured under Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who sought closer relations with China during his six years in office. Relations also soured over allegations of human rights abuses under Manila’s draconian policies on drugs – with Duterte in 2016 calling then-President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” over warnings the   then-Philippine   leader would be questioned over his drug war.

Harris and Marcos discussed new projects including establishing additional defense sites around the Philippines, part of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the two countries. EDCA allows U.S. troops to use agreed locations in the Philippines for security exercises     and     joint  military  training  on  a   rotational basis.

There are currently five EDCA locations and additional new ones have been identified, a senior administration official told reporters in a briefing. “This will allow for more security cooperation exercises, combined training activities, and it will allow us to respond to disaster relief and humanitarian assistance needs,” the official said, declining to provide details on those locations.

The EDCA was signed in 2014 but identification of sites has dragged on for years   due   to  the  pandemic and fraught ties under Duterte, said Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby of the Foundation for the National Interest, a Philippine research group.

“Now that the alliance is back on track, it is high time for both sides to reinvigorate the bilateral relationship through EDCA,” Misalucha-Willoughby told VOA. “This is an especially welcome move and is perceived positively by the Filipino strategic community for its HADR (humanitarian and disaster relief) angle.”

During the Cold War, the Philippines hosted some of America's largest overseas bases that were instrumental in U.S. wars in Korea and Vietnam. Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base were transferred to Manila’s control in the 1990s but in recent years the allies have returned to increased military cooperation in response to Chinese military activities in the South China Sea, where the Philippines has rival claims.

Harris’ statement on mutual defense is the latest invocation of the commitments the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Thomas Hubbard, reiterated in his 1999 letter to the Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, and that Washington has regularly reaffirmed since 2019, said Aaron Connelly, research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore.

“The goal is to deter attacks on Philippine vessels,” Connelly told VOA. “It doesn’t apply to the Spratlys or Scarborough Shoal themselves, with the possible exception of Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratlys.”

In 1999 the Philippine government deliberately had Philippine naval vessel BRP Sierra Madre run aground on the shoal to assert Philippine sovereignty in the country's dispute over the Spratly islands.

Like many in the region, the Marcos government seeks to navigate the U.S.–China rivalry by adopting the "friend to all and an enemy to none" policy. “In many ways, this is still an exercise of an independent foreign policy, but whereas Duterte's definition was to be independent from the U.S. and to be dependent on China, Marcos seems more adept at playing this game of hedging,” Misalucha-Willoughby said.

Long-standing ally

Marcos, for his part, said with the “upheavals that we are seeing, the partnership between the Philippines and its long-standing ally “becomes even more important.”

“The situation is rapidly changing. We must evolve to be properly responsive to that situation. And so that is why it is very important that we continue to progress, that we continue to strengthen as we redefine those relationships,” Marcos pointed out.

“Your visit is a very strong symbol that these relationships remain strong, that these relationships remain important as indeed they do. The Filipino, I have said many times, I do not see a future for the Philippines that does not include the United States,” the President told Harris.

Harris arrived in the Philippines in what was the first visit in five years by a high-ranking US official since former President Donald Trump visited the country for the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. She also held talks aimed at reinforcing the longtime security and economic relationship between Manila and Washington.

Duterte

In the past, Duterte had shown weakness in pursuing the country’s claims on the South China Sea or West Philippines Sea and held back against Chinese aggression and harassment of Filipino fishermen and Philippine Coast Guards, especially inside the territorial waters.

He even publicly declared that he loves Chinese President Xi Jinping and likened the country’s relations to Beijing to a flower that has started to bloom. (Mindanao Examiner, VOA)