First Voice
On his flight to Washington D.C., Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters that he would not allow the Philippines to "be used as a staging post for any kind of military action." It was seen as a response to Marcos granting the U.S. access to more military bases in his country, stoking concerns and fear that it could drag the Philippines unwillingly into a conflict between China and the U.S.
But as he sat beside U.S. President Joe Biden and issued a joint statement after their meeting, that previous response and those concerns seem moot. In their joint statement on May 1, Biden reaffirmed the U.S.'s "ironclad alliance commitments" to the Philippines, specifically underscored that "armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the Pacific, including the South China Sea, would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty."
"The United States and the Philippines will remain the closest of allies," the statement read.
How to balance between China and the United States has been one of the trickiest questions for Philippine presidents. Marcos is no exception. His first official visit to a non-ASEAN country was to China. He said that he will be opening a new chapter in the Philippine's relationship with China. And in the joint statement issued during the visit, it's stated that the leaders of the two countries will work to bring bilateral relations to new heights.
So, it shouldn't be a surprise that, given the importance Marcos has attached to China-Philippine relations, he'd try to appease the Americans.
People visit the booth of the Philippines at the China National Convention Center during the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2022. /Xinhua
However, shaping the Philippine-U.S. relationship primarily on security grounds is dangerous and upsetting beyond simply paying lip-service. Ruben Carranza, former commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government in the Philippines, told The Washington Post that "the U.S. needs Marcos Jr. as a doorman to hold the door open for U.S. forces." Despite Marcos's statement that he'd not allow his country to be a "staging post," the United States is clear about the Philippine's role in its Asia-Pacific strategy – a staging post for American forces to "counter" China's influence.
And it's not just the Philippines that are getting this treatment. The U.S. is sending a nuclear ballistic missile submarine to South Korea. The Australians, under the AUKUS alliance, will be getting three to five Virginia-class submarines from the Americans. The U.S. and Japan announced a significant upgrade in the U.S. military force posture in Japan in January, with one goal aiming at enhancing anti-ship capabilities against China's naval actions.
As the U.S. strengthens its military encirclements of China, the Philippines should recognize that Marcos's courtship of the Americans is tightening their country even closer into America's geopolitical objectives with lesser and lesser room to maneuver should a conflict erupt. Former member of the Philippine House of Representatives Teddy Casiño said in an interview with Democracy Now that "Filipinos do not need additional American troops and facilities in the country. It will only serve to increase the tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. And deploying additional facilities and troops in the Philippines will drag the country into the conflict, which is between China and the United States."
Worse, the Philippine's closer military relationship with the United States risks the country being turned into America's proxy in the region and the frontline soldier against China – regardless of whether the Philippines is willing or not.
The Philippine people are already worried about that possible outcome. When the Philippines and the U.S. held their "largest-ever" military drills in April, it sparked widespread protests with people burning U.S. flags outside the Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters in Quezon City. Protests were also held in New York.
Kenneth Faulve-Montojo, expert on Filipino politics and senior lecturer at Santa Clara University, told Time magazine that many protesters worry the increase of U.S. military in the Philippines could "signify a new encroachment on the Philippines's autonomy." "Their argument is that you're getting back to the way things were, the old system. In that context, you are surrendering Philippine sovereignty, and the Philippines now is becoming nothing more than a puppet for the United States," he said.
Trading the Philippine's military and diplomatic autonomy for closer military relations with the U.S. is not a wise deal. Lashing the country to America's geopolitical and military agenda will only enslave the country to the United States again.
