FRESH from his landslide victory in the May 9, 2022 presidential elections, then still president-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. delivered a speech as the guest speaker at the Awards for Promoting Philippines-China Understanding (APPCU) at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati on June 10, 2022. Showcasing a still scantily recognized talent for scriptless oratory, for which his father, the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, had been known for in his lifetime, Bongbong intoned at the ceremonies: "China is the Philippines' strongest partner" and claimed that it "cannot find a greater champion" than his mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos. The reference, of course, was to the fact that it was his parents who paved the way for establishing diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the People's Republic of China in 1975. While recognizing that "the partnerships between the Philippines and other nations would keep the stability of our economic recovery," he nonetheless emphasized, "Come to the time, come to the day when we can say, we are beyond the pandemic crisis, we are beyond the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. We can only do it, certainly in the Philippines we can only do it with our partners, and our strongest partner has always been, in that regard, our close neighbor, and our good friend, the People's Republic of China."
That was a good enough preview of what is forthcoming in the nascent Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presidency. He comes at a time when the world is into a process of increased polarization brought about by the Ukrainian crisis. Nations of the world are being prompted to align with one camp or other accordingly as they take sides in the war in Ukraine. We cannot fail noticing that there are efforts from US-aligned countries, and from the US itself, to strike up friendly overtures toward the new Bongbong administration, the long-range objective evidently being to sway the Philippines toward where the American wind blows in the war in Ukraine. That Bongbong early on goes out of his way to declare China as the Philippines' strongest partner is assurance enough that he knows whereof he speaks. And in charting the course of Philippine development, going the China way must remain to be the only way.
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