Pipe dream. The PI is strategically important, and if the Commie dinks get hold of it, particularly the Subic Bay naval base, Cubi Point airfield, and Clark airport & enterprise zone, they’re not giving any of it back.
You make great points, but my question is...So what? I’m not trying to be snide, either.
PI, more importantly Duterte, doesn’t want us there, fine. He’ll soon realize where all his money is coming from and going when all the US personnel move out. He’ll soon find himself and his country slaves to either China or Russia and they won’t be throwing the cash or the aid around like the US and the US military personnel do. Of course, he won’t be the one that will feel the full weight of his decision or the debt trap that he seems to be creeping into, it’ll be the small business owners, landlords and all the other folks that make a living off the US military.
Amazingly, if you travel through the Middle East, i.e. Dubai-Doha, when you go through those airports(which are pretty effin’ nice) all you see are Filipino’s working in almost every job.
China’s main goal is control of the South China Sea and the oil potential. Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan are all interested, as was Philippines before Duterte.