The United States and the Philippines are best friends again. China has unwittingly reconciled them. The presidents of the American superpower and its former colony strengthened bilateral ties yesterday during a visit by Ferdinand Marcos jr. in the White House that definitely leaves behind many years of coldness in the relationship; first, during the dark years of the cruel and kleptocratic mandate of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos – the parents of Biden’s guest – and recently, during the era of closer rapprochement between Manila and Beijing during the six-year rule of Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022).
Manila is an increasingly important piece in the Cold War playing out in the South China Sea, with Taiwan at the center of tensions. Four months after agreeing US access to four Philippine military bases, joined in February to the five used long before by the Pentagon as part of the Indo-Pacific Enhanced Defense Cooperation Pact, Biden pledged yesterday in front of Marcos to continue rearming his country’s army.
The US president announced the transfer to the archipelago of three C-130 aircraft that will join “several” Cyclone-class coastal patrol boats already on their way to the Philippines. The United States Government also plans to soon increase the number of surveillance ships: a constant priority in waters frequently ruled by Chinese incursions into maritime territories that the Philippines and Taiwan consider their own.
President Biden, through his team, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty, signed with the Philippines in 1951. The pact states that both nations support each other if a third attacks either two
The support of the United States to the Philippine military far exceeds the increase in material aid of the American power, emphasized the spokesman of the National Security of the White House, John Kirby. The armed forces of the two nations will intensify “joint planning, tactical interoperability and information sharing,” and will continue to conduct exercises with forces from both sides.
The talks between the presidents and their defense teams also included, according to senior Washington officials, the search for new sites in the Philippines where US troops can be stationed.
At the reception to Marcos Jr., he prepared the strengthening of the military alliance with the announcement of several actions of economic cooperation, including the next sending of a mission to the Asian country to “enhance the investments of the United States in the ‘innovation economy of the Philippines, boost its transition to clean energy and the critical minerals sector’, and underpin ‘the food security of the population’ of these islands.
The United States will help its ally in the deployment of 5G technology, in financing to obtain minerals intended for components of electric vehicles, in the development of “smart†electric grids and in the improvement of airport and maritime security or the healthcare industry.
This is a full-fledged reconciliation, clearly driven by the realpolitik of the United States at a time of maximum tension with China in the Pacific.
“We are very grateful for the leadership of the President of the Philippines in advancing our alliance,” said Kirby. And he described as “surprising” the turn that the relationship has taken in the last year, since Marcos son came to the presidency in June.
Such warmth towards the Philippine president would have been unthinkable a year ago. The son of the marriage that subjugated his country between 1965 and 1986 was until recently an outcast to much of the international community, and still faces a class action lawsuit over non-payment of compensation for violations of human rights of his father.
But geopolitical urgencies, especially the cold war with China, prevail over other considerations. Including some that were considered sacred.
