Since the time of sleepy Joe Biden (that’s how Trump calls his predecessor) and even during the first Trump administration, US officials were so used to promising “ironclad” support for the Philippines, especially in case of conflict in both sides of the Indo-Pacific, as mandated by our Mutual Defense Treaty, circa 1951.
Almost every cabinet secretary, congressman, senator and even a Vice President of the United States of America considered their visits incomplete without this assurance of “ironclad” friendship.
Just as for decades, they have bandied about the reign of a “rules-based” maritime order.
We remember Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, giving high importance to the friendship and ties of the two nations, saying “the US-Philippine alliance is vital for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
Rubio also met with President Bongbong Marcos in Washington DC, where he again underscored “the importance of the ironclad United States-Philippines Alliance to maintaining peace and stability…”
During that meeting, the two officials reaffirmed their shared commitment to deterrence and reinforcing freedoms of navigation and overflight in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Well, it’s time to look if these assurances and promises are true.
Here, we will have to peruse if the American word is substantiated by its actions.
Last December 4, the Trump Administration published its 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) that centers on its policies on China, Russia and the European Union, but conveniently excludes the Philippines, which should be an important military and economic ally. The document is China-centric.
To think that President Bongbong Marcos has shown his servility to the US, choosing to increase the number of military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States to nine strategic areas.
These EDCA bases operated under US laws, although they are in the provinces of the Philippines, and the US military does not have to inform the Armed Forces of the Philippines and even the Department of National Defense on details of how these bases are used.
It is just like tearing apart parts of Philippine sovereignty and giving them back to our colonial masters.
It is a great embarrassment for Bongbong Marcos to discard the independent foreign policy of the Duterte administration and move close to the US, only to be ignored this way.
Well, as “konswelo de bobo” to Bongbong, American ally and partner Pakistan, and military treaty ally Thailand, are also not mentioned in the NSS. Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Pacific Island Nations were also not cited, while Canada was mentioned only in the contest of joint maritime exercises with the Philippines.
For Trump, his priorities lie in South America, Japan, South Korea and Australia, with India mentioned only perfunctorily.
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