Are the Philippines and America still friends?

Today is supposed to be the Philippine-American Friendship Day, instead of being the Philippine Independence Day. Thus, it is an opportune time to review the Philippine-US relations, especially because under the current administration, there seems to be a lovers' quarrel between Manila and Washington. We all know that the president of the Philippines, under the Constitution, is the chief architect of Philippine foreign policy. And president Duterte is the only president, among the 16 ever to lead this country, who refused to visit America, while going in and out more than five times to Beijing and Moscow.

President Duterte criticizes the US for being too presumptuous to give his government a lecture on human rights when, according to him, America killed innocent people and communities when it bombed certain areas during the Vietnam War, and in more recent events like in the Middle East and in South America. He also mentioned the massacre of hundreds of Warays in Balangiga. The president hates what he called the arrogance, self-righteousness, and pretentious stance of Americans, who supposedly lambasted his government's war against drugs, when the US allegedly bombed innocent civilian villages in South America in the guise of fighting the drug cartels and international drug syndicates.

Duterte claimed that America always gives “aid” with very onerous strings attached. He refuses to be treated as leading a country which is looked down on like a vassal or a colony of the US Empire.

In fairness to President Duterte, the warm relations between Manila and Washington started to sour as early as the 1990s when the Cory Aquino government decided to eject the US bases from the Philippines. In September 1991, 12 senators voted not to extend the US bases' stay in the Philippines which expired that year. They were Senate president Jovito Salonga, Wigberto Tañada, Victor Ziga, Butz Aquino, Juan Ponce Enrile, Erap Estrada, Teopisto Guingona, Sotero Laurel, Ernie Maceda, Orly Mercado, Nene Pimentel, and Rene Saguisag. The US forces were ejected from Clark Air Base, Subic Naval Base, Wallace Air Station, Cubi Point Naval and San Miguel Naval Stations and Camp John Hay. That was a major blow to the pride of the Americans having been rebuffed by a former colony and the “unkindest cut of all” was that it happened under a very pro-US president, Cory Aquino, whose family was granted asylum in Boston during the Marcos dictatorship.

If we go back further to earlier history, the Philippines was under Spain from 1565 to 1898. In May 1898, US Commodore Dewey and Spanish Admiral Montojo staged a simulated naval showdown in Manila Bay, to justify the sale by Spain of the Philippine archipelago to America at a bargain price of $20 million. It was the greatest bargain because the sale was a package deal involving the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. In July 1941, William Howard Taft established a civilian government in the Philippines. When America declared war against Japan, the Philippines became a battleground, causing historic destruction and massacres of Filipinos who were caught in the vortex of the US-Japanese war.

General Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines in March 1942 and fled to Australia with President Manuel Quezon and Vice President Sergio Osmeña Sr. MacArthur later came back with President Osmeña in 1944 and liberated the country.

We were colonized by America until July 4, 1946 when independence was finally granted after a long and arduous struggle.

In March 1947, Washington and Manila signed an agreement on the free use by American troops of the air bases and naval stations named above. It should be recalled that because of the so-called US and Philippine friendship, thousands of Filipinos died in the Japanese-American war, as well as in the Korean War, where our country, in support of US forces, sent the PEFTOK or Philippine Expeditionary Forces To Korea. We also sent the PHILCAG or Philippine Civic Action Group to Vietnam when the US intervened in the war between North and South Vietnam.

What has the US done for our veterans? Well, they were made American citizens and given pittance while the Japanese, their enemies, were welcomed with open arms to America. Filipinos are being bullied by racists in the US even until today. And so, can we blame President Duterte if he would say: With a friend like America, who needs enemies?