What bearing will results of the United States presidential elections have on its major ally, the Philippines?
“Whoever wins—whether it be Republican or Democrat—we will continue to work with the United States,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters.
Republican challenger Willard Mitt Romney and Democrat President Barack Obama were locked in a tight race on the eve of the elections that reminded watchers of the match between George W. Bush and Al Gore a dozen years ago.
Amid the US and our country’s Mutual Defense Treaty and longstanding economic relations, the government of President Benigno Aquino III is expected to continue counting on support from the White House, whoever sits there, especially with regard to claiming its share of the Spratlys amid China’s claim of the entire West Philippine Sea.
(Washington is expected to step up after the leaders of the European Union recently indicated support for President Aquino’s proposed diplomatic and law-based solution to the dispute.)
While the Aquino administration will continue to work through the issue diplomatically (apparently with some back channeling), some quarters could expect more firmness from Washington in supporting allies if Romney become its next occupant, the former Massachusetts governor having decried economic tactics from Beijing that he deems disadvantageous to the world market.
Meanwhile, the general reluctance of any Democratic presidential candidate to give jobs to immigrants or to move American companies abroad should not sully the Philippine government which under Aquino has promised consign to oblivion the Overseas Filipino Worker phenomenon and has made remarkable strides in improving domestic suitability to foreign investors.
The Philippine Reproductive Health bill could further lose steam in the event of a Romney win that would make US foreign policy more conservative and thereby averse to supporting financially or otherwise US-based movements to promote population reduction on the planet.
Relations between the two countries would go significantly farther if some stubborn kinks in history would be ironed out within the term of the next US President through the return to the country of the bells of Balangiga, Samar, which are rightfully the property of the Catholic Church in Samar, not war trophies, and the compensation of Filipinos who fought under the US flag during the Second World War.
A President Romney or President Obama can learn something of peacemaking from the Philippine government which is on the verge of definitively ending its problems with its Islamic constituency in Mindanao through the framework for the establishment of the Bangsamoro region.