FROM now on, the Filipino nation will have to rely on the magnanimity and committed promises of a strong ally — presumably the United States — as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. minced no words in redacting the friend-to-all-enemy-to-none foreign policy of both the Duterte and the Marcos administrations.
At a dinner hosted by the Philippine Embassy at the Blair House for President Marcos in Washington DC on Monday night, the President referred to the recent scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as contributing to the “chaotic” state of the international scene.
Marcos expressed belief that in order to maintain stability in the region and in the world, it is necessary to have strong partnerships with other nations.
“And I have come to believe that the way forward, the way that we will be able to navigate this troubled water, the way that we will be able to guide ourselves is to be strong, to have strong partners, to have strong allies,” the Chief Executive, who is also the chief architect of Philippine foreign policy, pointed out.
‘Friendship and alliances can serve some good purpose at times but should not be the be-all and end-all of Philippine foreign policy.’
“Since things are so volatile, the stability would come from those alliances, those partnerships. And it is a strange thing to come from that situation where you have a very polarized world view, to come from that situation where now we have to look into very different directions all the time,” he added.
Marcos’ belief in putting a premium on military alliances to achieve stability in a volatile world stands on shaky ground. This is because alliances cut both ways: they can bring some useful things but they can create problems, too, especially for a developing nation such as ours.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte and respected writer-public intellectual Christopher Hitchens both pointed out the folly of Christian rulers and monarchs in Europe who fought each other in a world war that began small but later engulfed the whole world because of military alliances that the parties just had to honor. The result was a colossal catastrophe that killed 22 million people and wounded 21 million more, aside from economic devastation of at least 16 countries.
Marcos’ fascination with a strong military ally has been shot down by his elder sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, who has called out her brother’s generals at a Senate hearing for openly relying on other countries for the defense and security of the Philippines.
Senator Marcos and other political analysts correctly pointed out that in case of war between China and Taiwan, an event that would prompt the US to intervene, our military alliance with the United States might force us to engage in a war which is not ours. Such is the double-edge reality of a military alliance which President Marcos so naively praised.
There can be nothing better than developing our own strength economically and militarily — and evading any unwanted participation in an international armed conflict that we really do not need. Friendship and alliances can serve some good purpose at times but should not be the be-all and end-all of Philippine foreign policy.
