Philippines officials have gone into damage control mode after controversial President Rodrigo Duterte said the country’s long-term alliance with the United States was over.
Philippines Trade Minister Ramon Lopez told CNN the country “would not stop trade and investment with the US.”
“(Duterte) has decided to strengthen further and rekindle the ties with China and the ASEAN region,” Lopez said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
There was widespread shock after Duterte announced his “separation” from the US, suggesting he would cut both economic and military ties, in favor of moving closer to Beijing.
“America has lost now. I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow,” President Duterte told business leaders in Beijing on Thursday.
“And maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way.”
But a spokeswoman for the President back in Manila suggested there was confusion within the government about what exactly Duterte intended.
“We would not like to interpret the pronouncements of the President,” Maria Banaag told reporters Friday.
‘Troubling rhetoric’
The Philippines is a key US ally in the region, and Washington supported former President Benigno Aquino’s efforts to gain international recognition for Manila’s claims to South China Sea territory illegally occupied by China.
In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila blasted Duterte’s comments as “creating unnecessary uncertainty.”
“We’ve seen a lot of this sort of troubling rhetoric recently which is inexplicably at odds with the warm relationship that exists between the Filipino and American people and the record of important cooperation between our two governments,” embassy spokeswoman Molly Koscina said.
The US will honor its alliance commitments and treaty obligations, and expects the Philippines to do the same, she added.
Beijing rejected a recent international court ruling in Manila’s favor, and has long called for bilateral negotiations in which other parties do not participate.
In a statement, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised Duterte’s willingness to address “territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means … through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned.”
‘Maybe he’s joking’
More than 2.6 million Filipinos live in the US.
Trade in goods between the US and the Philippines topped $18 billion last year, and US companies have invested more than $4.7 billion in the Philippines. The US also accounts for roughly a third of the $17.6 billion that Filipinos working overseas have sent home this year.
In Manila, many greeted the news with shock.
“Maybe he’s only joking,” saleswoman Marisa Laguitan, 59, said.
“America is very friendly and a very long (term) friend of Filipinos.”
Ian Duly, 34, said he had nothing against the US, but “it’s about time for a change.”
“I believe in Duterte,” he added. “It’s about standing up for your people.”
Speaking to CNN Philippines, one call center worker worried about the effect the move could have on her industry.
“What if BPOs disappear in the Philippines? We won’t have a job,” she said, referring to business process outsourcing.
More than a million Filipinos work in call centers and data processing, servicing mainly the US. The government expects the market to generate upwards of $25 billion in revenue this year.
Duterte ‘delusional’
Lopez, the trade minister, dismissed concerns that Duterte’s shift would endanger the country’s economy.
“What we are saying is that there will be less dependence just on one side of the world,” he told CNN.
“As you know we have been strong partners with the US so its basically just trying to balance the partnership and also strengthening this side of the world, specifically with China.”
He said Duterte was pursuing an independent and “more sovereign” foreign policy, adding that the US-Philippines relationship was strong and “cannot just be eliminated.”
Duterte’s opponents at home were damning however.
“(He) has a really inflated, if not delusional, view of himself as a strongman at the level of China and Russia’s leadership,” Senator Leila De Lima, a longtime critic of the President, said in a statement.
Former foreign minister Albert Del Rosario warned of cosying up to a country like China that doesn’t share “our core values of democracy (and) respect for human rights.”
“Casting aside a long time reliable ally to hastily embrace an aggressive neighbor that vehemently rejects international law is both unwise and incomprehensible,” he said in a statement.