The recently concluded US elections that saw Donald Trump make a comeback as president is not expected to cause a major shift in the master-puppet relationship between the US and the Philippines.
The difference between a Democrat and a Republican US president is much like the difference between two cola brands—the fizz may set them apart but that’s about it.
When it comes to the things that really matter, like US support for the country’s brutal counter-insurgency program, there is no reason to believe that Donald Trump will cause major digressions from what his predecessor Joe Biden had started. We must remember that the $500-million in US military assistance to the Philippine government approved under the Biden regime was the result of a bipartisan initiative. On things like this, Democrats and Republicans see eye to eye.
Trump’s mantra of making America great again will moreover fuel US efforts at outdoing its rival China in pursuing dominance in the Indo-Pacific region. Trump’s penchant for maintaining US geo-political dominance but paying less for it will lead to more proxy wars. In our side of the world, it means that Philippine troops are more likely to end up being cannon fodder for any military conflicts that may erupt as a result of US warmongering against China.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has already congratulated Donald Trump ahead of the official proclamation of the poll winners, signalling that he is ready to kowtow to the new caretaker of the US establishment. After all, he has already established his status as puppet not just by reaffirming but enhancing all the major security treaties and agreements that have defined the country’s subservience to US imperial interests.