Trump Presidency 2.0: Ending Colonial Mentality In Philippine Defense And Foreign Policy Under Marcos Jr Administration – Analysis
President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House should provide opportunities for the Philippines to end the perennial colonial mentality in Philippine defense and foreign policy.
When President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr assumed office in June 2022, there were enormous expectations that his administration would take this direction by pursuing a flexible foreign and defense policy practiced by most Southeast Asian countries. Otherwise known as “bamboo diplomacy”, this policy delicately balances the country’s bilateral relations with great powers, particularly with the United States and China, with the main goal not only of advancing national interests but also in maintaining regional stability through the principle of peaceful coexistence, neutrality and amity among nations.
“Friends to All Enemy to None”
Three years ago, during the presidential campaign, Marcos Jr promised to continue the nationalist policy of his predecessor, former President Rodrigo R. Duterte who attempted to champion a flexible foreign policy by implementing a comprehensive strategic cooperation with China while sustaining, but critically reexamining, military alliance with the US with a pragmatic slogan, “friends to all and enemy to none”. In January 2023, in fact, Marcos Jr announced during his visit to China to shift to a higher gear Manila ties with Beijing while sustaining defense alliance with the US.
The world thought that Marcos Jr would truly uphold an independent Philippine foreign policy as mandated by the 1987 Philippine Constitution. But Marcos Jr surprisingly made a drastic turnaround when he suddenly adopted an excessive pro-Americanism in Philippine defense and foreign policy. This excessive pro-Americanism is a strong indication of the persistence of colonial mentality in the Philippines under his leadership.
Excessive Pro-Americanism
Marcos Jr policy is now akin to the foreign and security policy of late President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Like his pro-American mother, the late President Corazon C. Aquino, the late President Aquino III became excessively pro-American when he succumbed to the US influence to challenge China before international arbitration on maritime jurisdictional conflict in parts of the South China Sea (SCS) that Manila calls as the West Philippine Sea (WPS). To counter China, Aquino III even signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the US in 2014 that Marcos Jr expanded in 2023.
To date, nine American military facilities are built in Philippine bases as a result of the EDCA expansion under Marcos Jr administration. There are other camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) facing the SCS where American troops can easily access as locations of other US satellite military facilities to support various kinds of Pentagon’s military activities in the Philippines.
Currently, there is also the controversial and risky deployment of American Typhon mid-range missile system in the Northern Philippines facing Taiwan. AFP Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner even announced his inclination to permanently deploy the Typhon missile in the Philippines. Philippine National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr also affirmed the indefinite stationing of the Typhon missile in the Philippine to deter China’s “aggressive and coercive” activities in the WPS.
Bases of Philippine Insecurities
According to Prof. Roland G. Simulan, American military facilities in the Philippines are, in fact, the bases of Philippine insecurities rather than defense.
In the Third Edition of his book, The Bases of Our Insecurity: A Study of the US Military Bases in the Philippines, published in July 2024, Simbulan laments, “if we allow US troops and warships and aircraft, some of which carry nuclear weapons to use and establish drone bases in any part of the Philippines, we will surely be targeted by China’s missiles or worse by suicide bombers retaliating against US military forces.”
Thus, excessive pro-Americanism of Marcos Jr administration is raising the risk of the Philippines to get involved in the worsening American rivalry with China and other US adversaries in the world.
The Philippines as a Former American Colony
There is nothing new in pro-Americanism in Philippine defense and foreign policy as the Philippines was known worldwide as a direct colony of the US from 1898 to 1935. Because of the struggle of the Filipino people for self-determination and political independence, the US granted the Philippines the Commonwealth Government on November 15, 1935 as a political transition toward sovereign rule.
However, foreign policy and military affairs of the Philippines remained in the supreme hands of the US. All legislation passed by the Philippine Congress still needed the approval of the US president. This situated deeply sedimented American colonial rule of the Philippines even during the Commonwealth period.
The Commonwealth: The Root of Continuing Dependence
The passage in 1935 of the Commonwealth Act Number 1 provided the solid foundation for the US to maintain a strong grip on the Philippines that until now shape the direction of Philippine foreign and defense policy. Better known in the Philippines as the National Defense Act (NDA) of 1935, it established the strategic umbilical cord between the two countries and provided the legal justification for forging a military alliance. The NDA allowed the establishment of US military reservations in Philippine territories while the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines was setting-up its own independent military forces.
The NDA also authorized Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon to confer on US Gen. Douglas MacArthur the title of field marshal of the Philippine Army. MacArthur was the architect of the Philippine defense plan that became the basis for the development of the current AFP.
Though it has gone through several revisions, the NDA remains in effect and continues to serve as the formal tie that strongly binds and inextricably links the security of the Philippines with the US.
The US as the Liberator and Savior
When Japanese Imperial forces occupied the Philippines from 1941 to 1945, Commonwealth President Quezon evacuated to the US to run a government in exile. The Commonwealth Period formed a habit among Philippine security officials to be very reliant on the US government for security advice and training, if not outward decision-making.
The Japanese occupation allowed the US and the Philippines a common foe. Fighting side-by-side against the Japanese Imperial Forces further cemented the historical foundation of the US-Philippines military alliance; around a million Filipinos and over 60,000 US soldiers died in the Philippines during World War II.
World War II served as the main catalyst for Philippine security officials to develop a strong emotional affinity with and psychological dependence on their US counterparts. Most Filipinos during World War II regarded the US as the liberator of their country from the Japanese Imperial Forces. This created an image of the US among most Filipinos as a “savior” of the Philippine Republic.
Neocolonial Philippine Republic
When the Philippines received its political independence from the US on July 4, 1946, then President Manuel Roxas enunciated a pro-American orientation of Philippine foreign and security policy. During his inauguration, Roxas declared his unequivocal subordination to the US when he stressed that he was committed to “subscribe irretrievably” to US foreign policy and to the “cause and international program of the United States of America.” He also underscored the need to have the “closest cooperation with the United States in all matters concerning our common defense and security.” Thus, his government signed the Military Bases Agreement (MBA) with the US in 1947.
In his book, The United States and the Philippines: A Study of Neocolonialism published in 1986, American scholar, Stephen R. Shalom, argued that Roxas Administration was the beginning of US neocolonialism in the Philippines. He asserted, “neocolonialism is appropriate for describing the relationship between the United States and the Philippines. Like all concept, neocolonialism is an abstraction but it has had very real consequences for the people of the Philippines.”
Succeeding Philippine presidents like Elipidio Quirino, Ramon Magsaysay, Carlos Garcia and Diosdado Macapagal attempted to adopt a less pro-US outlook in Philippine policy. But they all failed to resist strong American neocolonial rule of the Philippines.
Quirino, for instance, deployed Filipinos to fight with American troops at the onset of the Korean War in 1950 and signed the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the US in 1951. Magsaysay, on the other hand relied heavily on the US to fight the local communist insurgency and supported the formation of the US-led Southeast East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in 1954 to fight communism in the region. Although short-lived, SEATO served as the Asian counterpart of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Garcia appeared to be nationalistic when he implemented the Filipino First Policy. He also acted against the US by signing the Bohlen-Serrano Agreement that shortened the lease of American military bases from 99 years to 25 years renewable after every five years.
But Garcia actually failed to overcome neocolonial dependence on the Americans considering that during his administration, half of foreign investments to the country were from the US while American business community occupied the most prominent position in the Philippine economy. Thus, Garcia kept four American bases in Subic, Sangley, Clark and Baguio City.
Despite some nationalist resistance, Macapagal also sustained the neocolonial policy of Garcia of keeping US military bases in the Philippines. Though he changed the celebration of Philippine independence from July 4 to June 12 to promote a more independent posture, Macapagal supported American military activities during the Vietnam War in exchange for increased US foreign military assistance. Like other previous Philippine presidents, Macapagal relied heavily on US neocolonial support to fight the local communist insurgency.
US “Waltzed” with Marcos Sr
It was former President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr who pursued a more flexible and even pragmatic foreign and defense policy when his administration opened diplomatic relations with China and the so-called “communist world”, particularly with the former Soviet Union. Marcos Sr attempted to overcome American neocolonial rule of the Philippines under his grandious program of the “New Society”. To reduce the country’s dependence on the US for national defense, Marcos Sr implemented the ambitious but expedient Self-Reliance Defense Program (SRDP).
Marcos Sr utilized the US-Philippines alliance not only to confront common external security challenges and internal insurgency threats. He also used bilateral relations with the US to maintain his authoritarian regime. The US had to pragmatically and cautiously “waltz with the dictator” because the Cold War still required US military facilities in the Philippines.
Marcos Sr used nationalist rhetoric and anti-neocolonial propaganda to get more military aid from the US for purposes of rule maintenance. He even threatened to terminate the MBA if the US would not pay an annual compensation package for the use of facilities in Philippine territories. Marcos endeavored to remold the US-Philippines alliance by initiating an amendment of the MBA during the first term of his presidency. This effort led to the signing of the Ramos-Rusk Agreement on Septemeber 16, 1966, which finally reduced the term of the bases treaty from 99 to 25 years – thus the expiration of the MBA in 1991.
Autonomous Defense and Moribund Alliance After the Cold War
The end of the Cold War in 1991 posed enormous challenges to the relevance of the US-Philippines alliance. US withdrawal from Clark and Subic after the termination of the MBA in 1991 weakened the foundation of the alliance. The complete withdrawal of US military facilities in the Philippines in 1992 made the “once-strong” and “once-special” alliance “essentially moribund.” Many thought that this was the end of American neocolonial rule of the Philippines.
During the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos, the Philippine government flirted with the idea of autonomous defense by passing in 1995 the AFP Modernization Program. Confronted with territorial disputes in the SCS and internal armed conflicts with the Maoist and Moro rebels, the Philippine government even accommodated multilateral options, through regionalism, to overcome the country’s complex security dilemma.
From its bilateral security alliance with the US, the Philippine government, therefore, Ramos went regional and multilateral by strongly participating in the expansion and strengthening of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Philippine government also supported the establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1993 and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 1989. It even formally joined the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) after the termination of the MBA in 1991.
But the Philippine government realized that neither autonomy nor multilateralism was a complete solution. Autonomous defense was not just ambitious, it was also very impractical considering the country’s sluggish domestic economy in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It realized the peril of pursuing security through self-help without adequate military resources. It also acknowledged that while multilateralism was important to promote dialogues for regional confidence building, it was not adequate for national capacity building to overcome the country’s internal and external security problems.
Reactivation of Philippine-American Alliance
With the growing security challenges emanating from China against the backdrop of complex maritime disputes in the SCS, the Philippines found it necessary to reactivate its alliance with the US, particularly when China took control of the Mischief Reef in 1995. Thus, the Philippines fashioned a new type of security relations with the US when the Philippine Senate ratified the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in 1999 during the administration of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. American neocolonial rule of the Philippines did not end.
Philippine-American security alliance only fully reinvigorated after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. Then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo supported the US-led Global War on Terror (GWOT). The US, on the other hand, declared the Philippines as the second front in the GWOT next to Afghanistan, which the US invaded before targeting Iraq.
The Philippine government sent Filipino troops to Iraq to support American activities there. But when the Philippines withdrew its troops from Iraq in 2004 due to the abduction of a Filipino overseas worker by a terrorist group, Philippine-American relations turned very sour. Then President Arroyo, on the other hand, shifted her attention to China for political and economic support. In 2005, the Philippines and China enjoyed the “golden age” of Philippines-China relations when Arroyo pursued a friendlier policy towards Beijing. Again, there was a perception that the Philippines was ending its neocolonial ties with the US.
But the US regained its neocolonial control of the Philippines during the Aquino III administration in the aftermath of the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff. As previously mentioned, Aquino III signed the EDCA in 2014 allowing the building up of five American military facilities inside Philippine bases. From the “golden age” of Philippines-China relations under Arroyo, China and the Philippines suffered their lowest moments of bilateral ties under Aquino III. Meanwhile, the Philippines and the US enjoyed the enhancement of their neocolonial alliance during the Aquino III administration.
Brief Separation from the US: A Paradigm Shift to China
A major challenge in Philippines-US alliance emerged during the Duterte administration who stopped the full implementation of EDCA when he pursued a paradigm shift to China in foreign and security policy. Duterte even announced the separation of his foreign policy from the US. Duterte also suspended the implementation of the VFA while promoting pragmatic cooperation with China. To manage conflicts, Duterte joined China in pursuing the Bilateral Consultative Mechanism (BCM) in the SCS where both countries talked about cooperation, conflict management, and peaceful resolution of disputes.
Duterte attempted to overcome colonial mentality in Philippine defense and foreign policy by pursuing a hedging approach with China and the US practiced by Southeast Asian neighbors like Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and even Vietnam. But his term was short-lived to sustain such approach. After his term, the Philippines returned to neocolonial reliance on the US.
Subservient Policy and Renewed Dependence on the US
Though the world has changed from cold war to post-cold war and to the current century, it is a great pity that until now, the Philippine government under the Marcos Jr Administration still carries the neocolonial policy of dependence on the US. Rather than relying on its own feet and cooperating with close neighbors to address its panoply of security concerns free of American intervention, the Philippine government under Marcos Jr administration is relying again on its distant relative.
Nationalist scholars have called this as the neocolonial policy of subservience. This subservience to the US can be attributed to the persistence of century-old colonial mentality of ruling Filipino elites, the political oligarchs and the military, who regard its erstwhile colonial master as a provider and guarantor of Philippine security. They are the patrons of the masses who follow the colonial mentality of their masters.
Mendicant Policy
As a result of colonial mentality, Philippine foreign policy has become medicant to the American policy. The Philippine government’s blind adherence to the US Indo-Pacific Strategy is a tragic case of this continuing mendicancy in exchange for increased access of the Philippine military to US Foreign Military Assistance (FMA), Excess Defense Articles (EDA) and International Military Education and Training (IMET). Since 1946, the Philippines government has been begging the US for greater privileges in FMA, EDA and IMET.
Sadly, the Philippine military is currently free-riding on American defense capabilities through the MDT, VFA, EDCA and other military arrangements,. This actually limits the capability of the AFP to genuinely build its autonomous defense capabilities. Though the AFP continues to procure military assets to modernize the armed forces, the Philippine military continues to suffer from the perennial underdevelopment. Now, the Philippine military is still lagging behind its key Southeast Asian neighbors like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore because of the heavy reliance of the AFP on the US and other American military allies for defense build-up.
Towards a Decolonization Policy
The Philippines cannot be a truly sovereign state if its defense and foreign policy continues to be subjected to the colonial mentality of subservience and mendicancy on the US. As what former Senator Claro M. Recto once argued half a century ago, “The tragedy of our foreign policy is that being an Asian people ten thousand miles away from the effective center of American power, our behavior is that of banana republic in the Caribbean. We have fed upon the fancy that we are somehow the favorite children of America.”
While there is no doubt that the Philippines still needs to foster strong mutually beneficial relations with the US for pragmatic purposes and strategic considerations, ties should be built on decolonized mindset. The Philippines under Marcos Jr administration still have chances to adjust its policy by resisting US dominance as what other nations from the Global South or developing world are doing. The US, on the other hand, under the second Trump Administration should deal with the Philippines on equal footing and refrain from treating the Philippines as a subordinate ally, a controlled former colony.
Unless Filipinos overcome this colonial mentality through genuine decolonization that cuts its umbilical cord of dependence on its former colonial patron, pursuing an independent Philippine foreign policy and autonomous defense strategy will continue to be a myth rather than a reality. The return of President Trump to the White House should make a difference in ending this neocolonial rule and in reexamining the nature of Philippines-US alliance in the 21st century during the remaining years of Marcos Jr administration.
- Parts of this piece was culled in Rommel C. Banlaoi, “The US-Philippines Alliance: Meeting 21st Century Security Challenges” in Carl Baker and Brad Glosserman, eds., Doing More and Expecting Less: The Future of US Alliances in the Asia Pacific (Honolulu: Pacific Forum CSIS, 2013), pp. 55-66).
