What happened Mr Duterte? Problems in the bedroom with your concubine, Xi Jinping?
You confuse the order. Xi is not the concubine.
Nawww. It was Duterte who courted Xi but I think She’s Xi’s not being satisified in bed.
Why don’t they ask ASEAN for help first, so many countries want to play it both ways not just Philippines
No point in asking someone who does not have the ability to help.
Goes with the planed encirclement of China.
LOL. A few months back he was calling the US rude names and kicking out the last remnants of US military presence.
I hope the US military tell him where he can shove his MDT. How on earth does he think the US could help, even if they wanted to, with no local operations? Duterte doesn’t seem to realise the power games have shifted a bit and the Philippines is not as strategically important as it used to be. He’ll have to take his begging bowl elsewhere, I reckon.
Incidentally, the term Mutual Defence Treaty is laughable in itself. The days when Filipino guerrillas fought alongside American soldiers against the Japanese are gone and forgotten. I can’t imagine the US ever calling upon today’s ill-equipped, ill-trained AFP for “mutual” defence.
Still, the US should win over the Philippines at a low cost. The pacific is the new got spot and having allies surrounding China helps. It’s obvious Durtete made a mistake, the US has the leverage now to make him do what they the US wants if they want this mutual protection.
Two-bit countries are finding out the hard way that sucking on the CCP teat doesn’t work out well. How’s bending over and taking it working out in Kiribati?
They certainly do 
. I’m just not sure if they think it’s worthwhile using that leverage. Despite Trump’s posturing, the US basically seems to favour Kissinger-style rapprochement rather than confrontation. If push came to shove, I’m 99% certain they’d just throw the Philippines under the bus.
I guess it depends how badly the US wants to avoid a Chinese puppet emperor running the Philippines - which looks like it might well happen because of the abject failure of Covid-19 policy here. From the Filipino point of view, becoming a Chinese province would probably be an improvement, but it would be a disaster for Asia.
Yeah, the Philippines isn’t very important in the big picture of the US. Not sure why Duterte thought he could try to leverage his country the way that he has.
American imperialism isn’t nearly as bad as CCP’s goal of domination in the pacific. Say what you want about the US government, your average american has good intentions in global affairs. Your average chinese citizen agrees with the CCP on being a bully in the pacific.
My ex believed that people who disagree with China should die.
That relationship didn’t last long.
The Brits can’t control the planet anymore, so the Americans are the best second choice. Seriously, does anyone outside of China want the CCP calling the shots?
Trying to control the planet is what got the globalists into trouble in the first place.
It’s just a brainfart, but it occurs to me that what the world needs is a functioning Russian State. If the Russians could just stop drinking and starting wars for five minutes, and rediscover what it used to mean to be Russian - ie., the European centre of science and the arts - they might rediscover a bit of pride and confidence instead of skulking behind a glass slurring “wot you looking at, pal?”. A revitalized Russia could be a counterweight to both the US and China.
But somebody always does. It’s inevitable.
In Mother Russia, drinks and wars stop you.
The Philippines has natural resources and some decent resorts. Cut a deal and let China have half while the US takes the other half.
Only half kidding.
Best second choice?
We are all living under Pax Americana whether we want to or not.