Up to What Extent will Biden as US President Speak and Act Out against Duterte?

Joe Biden, the Democratic Party Candidate and likely next President of the US. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

No winner of the United States (US) Presidential Elections held last November 7, 2020 has been officially declared yet, and it is not expected to be made until around January 2021.¹ 

However, most if not all projections show the Democratic Party Candidate Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. or simply Joe Biden as having a clear and substantial lead over the current sitting US President Donald John Trump.² 

The Philippines’ Pivot to China

A composite picture of the flags of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippiines. Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

In the middle of March 2017, China’s Vice Premier Yang's Wa … oh sorry, I meant, “Yang Wang” (cough, cough) … while visiting Davao City expressed interest in funding at least two projects that was presented to him by the Philippine government. The two Infrastructure projects are worth a total of USD 3 Billion (or Php 150 Billion, assuming an Exchange Rate of USD 1 = Php 50) spanning 223 kilometers (km) of Infrastructure for Mindanao.

The first of these is the Davao City Expressway Project with a budget of USD 490 million (Php 24.5 Billion) which is a 23.3 km highway that features an elevated expressway.¹ The second is the Mindanao Railway Project with a budget of USD 2.56 Billion (Php 128 Billion) is a 200 km circuitous railway line that connects the major cities of Mindanao like Davao, Zamboanga, Butuan, Surigao, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and General Santos City.²

The US Will Not Help the Philippines Defend the Spratlys

US President Barack Obama conferring with Philippine President Benigno Aquino during Obama's visit to the Philippines. Photo courtesy of Getty Images

President Barrack Obama's visit to the Philippines last April 28-29, 2014 was very important because it more or less answered one of the most important questions in the minds of Filipinos right now which is, will the United States (US) help the Philippines retain its territories in the Spratly Islands? Sadly, the answer is a clear … NO. There are a couple of indications on why this is so, let me try to enumerate them one by one.

'Historical Position'
Historically as early as 1975 the US had already outlined its position on the Spratlys Islands, specifically in a telegram sent by the then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet that was declassified in 2006.¹ In it, Kissinger outlined that they consider the ownership of the Spratlys as "undetermined" and that they take a "neutral" stance in the claims of various countries in terms of ownership.

This means that the US does NOT recognize our ownership of territories in the Spratly Islands, this is because they say NONE of those territories were ceded over to them in the Treaty of Paris in 1898 when Spain surrendered some of their colonies (including the Philippines) to the US. So all the while we're telling the Americans that those Spratly Islands are ours, they are saying back, "Oh no they're not, nobody owns those yet."

China, At War with Its Closest Neighbors in the South China Sea

First, let's take a look at the South China Sea (SCS) and the countries around the border of that sea:

The South China Sea bordered by China, Vietnam and the Philippines. Photo courtesy of Yeu Ninje thru Wikipedia Commons.

As you can see from the map, there are approximately ten countries within the borders of the SCS, and the closest ones to China around that sea are TAIWAN, VIETNAM and the PHILIPPINES. Thanks to their blatant and shameless insistence of aggressively trying to expand their already large territory, China has now antagonized ALL 3 of its closest neighbors.

Iraq: America Loses Another War

'Vietnam'
After the unbelievably huge success of Desert Storm, the whole world was regaled by stories of how the US military rose up from the ashes of its defeat in Vietnam, & became the overwhelming, almost god-like force it was in Iraq.

Vietnam was such a traumatic experience for the US military, that succeeding generations of US military personnel vowed to win the next war, & to never again put itself into such a situation, or to at least win the next guerilla war.

Fast forward to 2006: The Democrats have won the House Majority, elected there by the American people on the basis of their platform to pull troops out of Iraq.