The election of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as Philippine president in May 2022 has proved exceptionally significant for Washington’s security alliances in the Indo-Pacific. Marcos, the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has prioritized the maintenance of healthy ties to the United States just as his father did during the Cold War. This marks a sharp departure from the foreign policy of Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who sought to systematically dismantle the U.S.-Philippine alliance, decrease Manila’s reliance on Washington, and pursue new partnership opportunities with China and Russia.
Marcos’s return to normal alliance relations with the United States was not an abrupt or surprising decision. Indeed, toward the end of Duterte’s tenure, it had already become apparent that the latter’s pro-China policies were failing spectacularly, as Beijing pressed ahead with its territorial expansion against its maritime neighbors in the South China Sea. China’s encirclement
