What Marcos should do in the next three years
While he has shown the official capacity and capability to draw how his administration differs from that of former president Rodrigo Duterte, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has to be more assertive, decisive, and persevering to realize his reform agenda and carve his legacy over the next three years. He has to take a hands-on policy on the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, who allegedly committed culpable violations of the Constitution, and get rid of China’s lackeys in his administration.
Two things were standouts in the first three years of his administration: the pivot of the Philippines to the United States from China; and the total rejection of Duterte’s bloody but failed war on drugs and the adoption of an anti-drug policy premised on the rule of law and not extrajudicial killings.
Marcos went to China for a state visit on Jan. 3-6, 2023 to firm up bilateral relations of the two countries. Not much gain was reported from his China visit, as China’s intrusion into the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and the fate of the Philippine victory in the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea were not discussed and resolved.
A month after, then United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Lewis visited the Philippines to hasten the delayed implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), an accord between the two countries. His visit led to the selection of nine military bases here for storage of US military war materials to deter China’s aggression in East Asia. It was the start of the pivot of the Marcos administration to the US. Edca was adopted in 2014, but Duterte sat on its implementation in his six-year tenure.
Duterte’s embrace of China was shown by his 2016 state visit to Beijing, where he practically indicated shelving ties with the US. In the past, Duterte suggested an alliance between the Philippines, China, and Russia. But he was not taken seriously, as nothing came out of his suggestion.
Lately, the Philippines-China bilateral relations have worsened, when Marcos, annoyed at the reported harassment of local vessels by the Chinese ships on the WPS, offered to take away the US “Typhon” missiles in local military bases if China withdraws its missiles aimed here and its vessels in the WPS. His suggestion fell on deaf ears.
To his credit, Marcos has jettisoned Duterte’s bloody but failed war on drugs, replacing it with his own anti-drug war premised on the rule of law and the capture of the smuggled illegal drugs instead. In 2023, Duterte and his minions, particularly Sen. Ronald dela Rosa and Sen. Christopher Go, kept on egging Marcos to continue Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, but Marcos ignored their suggestions. This has soured the Marcos-Duterte relations.
In his recently concluded state visit to the US, Marcos has received unsolicited signals when US President Donald Trump expressed the necessity to counter China’s inroads in the region, particularly the Philippines. At the same time, Trump took notice of how Duterte pivoted the country to China.
Trump indirectly suggested to Marcos that he should take steps to counter China’s running dogs in the Philippines and took a swipe at the Dutertes and their minions, who, although aligned with China, are causing trouble to his administration. Trump hardly referred to Duterte, who now faces crimes against humanity charges before the International Criminal Court and now detained in an ICC prison facility in Scheveningen, Netherlands. Trump was apparently referring to Sara Duterte, who faces impeachment trial at the Senate.
Sounding diplomatic to avoid accusations that he was interfering in Philippine internal affairs, Trump indirectly asked Marcos to take the bull by its horns and pursue a direction to oust completely the Dutertes, whom the US perceives to be China’s puppets. It was his way to ask the Philippine President that he should have not stopped running after them.
Marcos has adopted a hands-off policy on the Vice President’s impeachment issues. But if he wishes his administration to succeed and carve a legacy of achievement, he has to listen to Trump’s indirect suggestion and take a direct hand to ensure that China’s lackeys are booted out of public office through legitimate ways, including impeachment. Marcos should involve himself in the next three years. No ifs, no buts.
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Philip M. Lustre Jr. (ba.ipe.lustre@gmail.com) is a veteran freelance journalist with over four decades of experience in political and economic journalism.
