WHETHER he likes it or not, global events are developing to make the EDCA issue the first major test of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s leadership and wisdom. His very pro-American officials — ambassador to the US, second cousin Jose 'Babe' Romualdez and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, and most of the Filipino elite — will likely urge him to uphold the EDCA, which of course could lead us into the two wars that the US could possibly be involved in, with China and Russia.

That position would be a very slippery slope putting us, in case even of a limited conflict, in the cross-hairs not just of China but Russia. Even without a war, Marcos' acquiescence to US plans to activate EDCA would reverse his predecessor's huge gains in drawing the country closer to its biggest trading partner, and perhaps even the biggest source of cheap official credit.