Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
MANILA TIMES columnist Antonio Contreras in his Feb. 16, 2023 piece, "The President's pragmatic but bold foreign policy," noted that "a firestorm has been whipped by the news that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during the visit of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, agreed to accelerate and expand the implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the two countries adding four more US bases from where US troops can operate in various parts of the Philippines." He then identified the source of the "blowback" to several camps, including "loyalists" of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The eyebrow-raising statement involved Contreras' description of the "Duterte doctrine" as "appeasement toward China." Contreras undoubtedly invented this description of Duterte's China policy and has horribly misappropriated the term "appeasement" in the process.
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