During his recent visit to China, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared "it's time to say goodbye" to the United States. The Philippine leader and Chinese President Xi Jinping are getting closer, while Washington now is ignored.
Duterte spoke to the press in Beijing on Wednesday and his conference coincided with talks of unprecedented agreements, mainly granting the Philippines the use of Scarborough Shoal territories.
Duterte declared in allusion to Washington, "Your stay in my country was for your own benefit. So time to say goodbye, my friend."
"No more American interference. No more American exercises. What for," Duterte told the Filipino expat community in Beijing.
Relations between the Philippines and U.S. have been in crisis since the government of Barack Obama started complaining about the methods used by Duterte to fight against drug crime. The Philippine president disliked this and had a firm position against Obama.
The U.S. and the Philippines have been working together for about 65 years but now the relations have worsened. This, and the military bases that US has in Okinawa, Japan, was key in the US policy in the area.
We have to add that there are four million Filipino Americans in USA who send about $15 billion a year to their home country. This is equivalent to about 5 percent of the economy of the Philippines.
Since Duterte had misunderstandings with the government of Obama, he has been approaching to China, he was very clear and stated that he would charter a new course.
There are a lot of agreements to be reviewed which range from territorial to economic issues.
Infrastructure is also important for the government of Manila. Energy, soft loans and communications are on the table too. Long term loans would be ideal for Manila to develop great projects, as for example, railways.
The Philippine leader stated that the China partnership does not involve full military cooperation.
