PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said he reaffirmed the Philippines’ commitment to strengthen relations with the United States and promised to visit American President-elect Donald Trump as soon as he can.
Visiting US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III, meanwhile, expressed optimism the strong defense relations between US and Philippines will remain under the Trump administration.
During a visit in Palawan, Austin said the Philippines is an “important country” to US, and both the Democratic and Republican political parties in the US support the Philippines.
“I don’t speculate on what the next administration will do but what I can tell you is what I know. And what I know is that I’ve seen strong support for the Philippines in both parties in the United States and my guess is that we’ll continue to see that going forward,” he said.
Trump will assume the US presidency in January. He won the November 5 US elections against Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has announced Austin’s replacement — Fox News host Pete Hegseth.
Marcos, in an ambush interview in Catanduanes, said he had a “friendly” and “very productive” phone conversation with Trump yesterday morning before he left for the province.
“I expressed to him our continuing desire to strengthen that relationship between our two countries, which is a relationship that is as deep as possibly can be because it has been for a very long time,” Marcos said.
He said Trump remembered the Philippines and inquired about his (Trump’s) friend, former First Lady Imelda Marcos,
The President said he told Trump many Filipinos in the US “overwhelmingly” voted for him but they did not discuss the issue about the Filipino immigrants.
Trump had vowed a crackdown against illegal immigrants in the US.
Marcos said the Philippines ambassador to the US, Jose Manuel Romualdez, is “already working on that.”
“Anyway, it was a very good call. It was a very friendly call, very productive. And I am glad that I was able to do it and I think President-elect Trump was also happy to hear from the Philippines,” Marcos said.
In a social media post, the President said the “overwhelming support of Filipinos in the United States” for Trump is a testament to the deep and enduring friendship between the two nations.
“I look forward to working closely with you to further strengthen our ties and promote peace, stability and prosperity across the Indo-Pacific region,” Marcos added.
Austin said it is in the best interest of both nations to develop their relations.
He cited the need to help modernize the Philippine military and protect the interests of the Philippines and its people.
“I believe that this will remain an important country to us for many, many years in the future. And the strength of our alliance, I think, will transcend changes of administration going forward,” said Austin.
“Again, I won’t speculate on any changes in policy or anything that the new administration may bring on board. What I will tell you is that this is an important country not only to me but to people in both parties back in the United States,” said Austin.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, who accompanied Austin during his visit in Palawan, said it is natural for Filipinos to seek clarity on Philippine-US relations.
“But we should be looking also on the other side of the coin. Equally, with our anticipating a possible what will happen in the United States next year, we should be calling out what President Xi is thinking about insofar as China is concerned.”
He noted that “Chinese overreach and aggression” in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea “has caused this alliance to be as robust as it is.”
China has become aggressive in its claims in the South China Sea in the past years and has harassed Philippine government vessels and aircraft and even Filipino fishing vessels inside the Philippines’ 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone.
“They have been more aggressive in denying us access to our exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea. They have really placed a lot of these pseudo-military vessels disguised as Coast Guard vessels and maritime militia vessels in the areas of the West Philippine Sea,” said Teodoro.
Austin said China’s behavior of China is concerning and reiterated the US will continue to work with its allies to promote a secure and open Indo-Pacific region.
“We stand with the Philippines and we condemn dangerous actions by the PRC (People’s Republic of China) against lawful Philippine operations in the South China Sea. Again, this is concerning behavior,” said Austin.
Austin also reiterated the US commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty which mandates both nations to come to each other’s aid in case of an armed attack.
“America is profoundly committed to the defense of the Philippines. Our commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty is ironclad. And let me say again that the Mutual Defense Treaty applies to armed attacks on either of our armed forces, aircraft, or public vessels, including our Coast Guards, anywhere in the South China Sea,” he added.