I was born and raised in the PI. I love the PI and all the people I knew. Though I am not there now I feel very involved and I do not want the PI to be over whelmed by China at any level. There is not good reason for that. We all know they are bullies.
Please, tell them “No” in no uncertain terms. Please. If you agree to their terms now, they will not stop until they own the PI. DON”T let them do it.
Bodega
Ferdinand Marcos flew to Peking when Viet Nam fell. Kissed their butts. Marcos wanted too much rent money for US bases to protect his own country. Mt. Pinatubo(1991) settled the issue. If they want to protect themselves like Israel they should.
Duarte resented the US treating his country like a little brother. Fact is they are just that. Who’s going to protect them now? Perhaps the new Marcos should be making some fast deals with China’s other enemies.
Agree with you. Close family fought side by side with Philippine guerilla fighter (who were aiding a friend, an Australian plantation owner of a small island near Letye Gulf. The Aussie volunteered to be a coastwatcher on the island the Japanese took from him. Brought ashore by fierce Philippine fighters and left there treetop- he was discovered and murdered by Japanese troops tracing his radio broadcasts). Family thought the world of Philippine people, their culture, food and most of all their loyalty to the US.
The fact that the Chi-coms are trying to recreate the Japanese Empire Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere all over again has not been lost on modern Japan who are gearing up to fight them, as are the Phillipines, and other Pacific countries— they cannot understand the chi-com loving Biden and company not allowing the US Navy to make it power known.
You are right to advise them to kick them out- tell the NO in no uncertain terms as you say. Moreover the US needs to STEP UP and tell the Chinese to back off. More the problem when we are so “owned” by them. Trump had the answer and has even more- divest from these monsters. The chi-coms are aided by Communists in some of the Philippine island- as in the days of the Moro rebellion. The War on Terror had the US really cleaning them out— but now China is cultivating this. A brave and true friend of the US should not be ignored because of the greed of the Bidens and their ilk.