A little over a week after Joe Biden’s election as president, he made several calls to world leaders. When asked what he’s been telling them, Biden replied: “I’m letting them know that America is back. We’re going to be back in the game.” Biden in particular spoke with leaders of Japan, South Korea, and Australia and pledged to work with and improve diplomatic ties, countries that are part of the Indo-Pacific region, which his predecessor President Donald Trump had special relations. They also are treaty allies of the United States who have mutual defense agreements to come to each other’s defense if attacked by another country.
But what is interesting is that one other country with mutual defense agreement with the U.S. whom Biden did not call was Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. I wondered why? This didn’t seem like an inadvertent oversight on the part of Biden or Biden’s transition team.
Indeed, the Philippines’ relationship with the U.S. has not been as it appears to be. A lot of it is caused by Duterte’s anti-American behavior, which has oftentimes rubbed the wrong way.
Could it be because Duterte on February 15 had said that Donald Trump deserved to be re-elected, praising Trump’s reaction to his decision to end a decades-old military agreement with the United States, the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)? The VFA is very important to the overall U.S.-Philippines alliance, which sets out rules for U.S. soldiers operating in the Philippines. Without the VFA, the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) are deemed useless and unenforceable because the Philippine Constitution bans the stationing of foreign troops on Philippine soil. The signing of the VFA in 1997 allowed American forces to be deployed in the Philippines after the Philippine Senate failed to renew the U.S. bases agreement in 1991.
What went wrong?
From 1991 to 1997, no American troops were stationed in the Philippines. In 1995, China occupied Panganiban (Mischief) Reef in the Spratly Islands, saying that China will use it as shelter for fishermen. Unable to defend the reef from Chinese incursion, the Philippines let it go.
China gradually developed the reef and in 2014, built an artificial island around it and transformed it into an air and naval base. Recently, China is reportedly building a submarine harbor at Panganiban Reef, which is only 135 nautical miles from Palawan Island. Currently, two other reefs in the Spratlys have been militarized into air and naval bases.
When Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016, he favored closer ties with China and Russia. He said it was time for the Philippines to be militarily independent. During his state visit to Beijing in October 2016, Duterte announced his “separation” from the U.S. and sought to strengthen ties with China, he said,” I’ve realigned myself in your [China] ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world – China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way.” But as it turned out nothing came out of Duterte’s braggadocio. It was all air.
Interference
In March 2020, Duterte said in a televised press conference, “To the Filipinos (in America)… if this comes out, vote for Trump. And they say that I am interfering? Of course, I am interfering.” In endorsing Trump, Duterte said he was intentionally interfering with America’s politics as a way of getting back at US legislators who have been meddling with the Philippines’ internal issues.
It was a bad decision for Duterte to endorse Trump. First of all, Duterte’s endorsement of Trump was dangerous because if Trump loses it would put Duterte at odds with Biden. While it did draw support for Trump from thousands of Filipinos, it didn’t help Trump win the election simply because Filipinos are not American citizens. However, some may have convinced their relatives in the U.S. to support Trump. But the four million Filipino-Americans, who are mostly Democrats, supported the Biden-Harris ticket.
On June 2, 2019, Duterte decided to temporarily suspend his February notice of termination of the VFA to November 2020 with a possible extension of another six months.
On November 11, 2020, Duterte extended once again the suspension of the abrogation of the VFA by yet another six months, “to enable us to find a more enhanced, mutually beneficial, mutually agreeable, and more effective and lasting arrangement on how to move forward in our mutual defense,” the announcement said.
Lame duck
With Trump becoming a lame duck president after his election defeat, president-elect Biden would inherit the problems that have caused frictions between the U.S. and the Philippines for the past 70 years, which are mainly the Philippines’ belligerence towards perceived American interference in Philippine internal affairs. Biden’s anti-American stance would also hurt US-Philippines relations. That’s probably the reason why Biden did not call Duterte when he called other Asian allies after winning the election. Just guessing.
But given the weak national defense capability of the Philippines and China’s creeping adventurism in the Philippines, the Philippine government doesn’t have a choice but to kowtow to American political and economic interests. It didn’t help the government’s defense community when Duterte said the country couldn’t afford war with China over disputes in the South China Sea. “China has the arms—we do not have it. So, it’s simple as that. They are in possession of a property…. So what can we do?” he added.
Well, Mr. President, be reminded that the Philippines has the best capability to defend itself from foreign aggression: the MDT, VFA, and EDCA. And they cover any Philippine territory or even ships in any ocean around the world. China cannot touch us. We’re untouchable only because of our defense agreements with the U.S. But there is a price for security. The Philippines cannot exercise total sovereignty. But it is a small price to pay among interdependent nations. Heck, there are U.S. military forces in Japan, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, Turkey, and several other U.S. allies around the world. Yet, they are all sovereign countries with independent governments. By they all have a little price to pay to secure their borders from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
President-elect Biden has a plateful of foreign policy challenges. So when he calls foreign leaders to discuss stronger diplomatic ties, foremost in his mind is the security of America’s allies. America provides the security umbrella over the Free World. And Biden with his extensive foreign policy experience would serve America’s role as the guardian of freedom. He’ll restore world stability and peace among nations.
