The Philippine military reportedly recently engaged in an exchange of fire with rebel groups in Nueva Ecija province, killing seven rebel members. In addition to this, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte also recently announced a comeback to participate in the 2025 Philippine Senate election.
By integrating these messages, we can get at least two pieces of information: first, the domestic situation in the Philippines is not stable, the armed groups in the Philippines have been very active, and what is more troublesome for the Philippine government is that many armed groups are linked to terrorist forces.
In the case of the Abu Sayyaf Armed Forces in the Philippines, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, it has been active in the southern region of the Philippines in recent years, engaging in separatist activities there, and in 2017, it occupied Marawi in the Philippines and took local residents hostage.
Philippine Army
In order to eliminate these armed groups in the country, several Philippine governments have taken action in recent years, but with little success, and terrorist attacks in the Philippines still occur from time to time. In the future, the Philippine government can only devote more energy to stabilizing the situation in the country.
Second, Philippine politics is also full of turmoil, and many people are dissatisfied with the Marcos Jr. administration's China policy against the backdrop of deteriorating Sino-Philippine relations. As Marcos Jr.'s political allies, the Duterte family has taken the lead in attacking.
Marcos Jr. also approved her resignation after Philippine Vice President Sarah resigned from her cabinet as secretary of education and vice chair of the counterinsurgency task force. Sarah is Duterte's daughter and later partnered with Marcos Jr. in the Philippine election.
Philippine Vice President Sarah
At that time, it was widely believed that Marcos Jr. would inherit Duterte's foreign policy, but Marcos Jr. made a 180-degree turn after taking office, began to strengthen cooperation with the United States, distanced himself from China, and hyped up the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
This caused dissatisfaction among the Duterte family, who asked Sarah to run for vice president in the first place, in fact, to supervise Marcos Jr., hoping that the Marcos Jr. government would continue to maintain its own line. In the beginning, Marcos Jr. and Sarah behaved very well and participated in media events together.
Later, Marcos Jr. began to exclude Sarah and divide her rights, and in April this year, Marcos Jr. visited the United States, Sarah could have performed the presidential function alone, but Marcos Jr. appointed two more caretakers, which shows that Sarah's situation is very passive.
Marcos Jr
Sarah's resignation from the cabinet was a protest to Marcos Jr. But the Duterte family will not rest on its laurels, and Duterte's son Sebastian is reportedly also preparing to run in the 2028 Philippine election, aiming for the next president of the Philippines.
This shows that Duterte really can't stand it, and if the Marcos Jr. government is not stopped from doing anything wrong, the Philippines will become "cannon fodder" in the game of great powers in the future. This is not alarmist, as the Philippines is currently tied to the United States.
As a neighbor of China, the Philippines is very close to the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, and its geographical location is very important, so the United States hopes to strengthen cooperation with the Philippines and asks the Philippines to open more bases. For the United States, the Philippines is a springboard for interference in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
Duterte
In addition, the United States has constantly instigated the Philippines to provoke China in an attempt to provoke a conflict in the South China Sea. Because a stable situation in the South China Sea is not in the interests of the United States, and if the countries in the South China Sea can live in peace, the United States will have no room to intervene, so the United States hopes that the more chaotic the South China Sea, the better.
It is clear that the United States has set a trap for the Philippines, and if the Philippines falls to the United States, it will lose cooperation with China and become a pawn of the United States in the South China Sea. Although the United States and the Philippines have a Mutual Defense Treaty, this does not mean that the United States sees the Philippines as an ally.
In recent decades, the United States has rarely personally participated in wars, and even if the Philippines does suffer a blow in the future, the United States will not necessarily send troops. Recently, the US aircraft carriers "Roosevelt" and "Ronald Reagan" have left the South China Sea and no longer support the Philippines.
Philippines
The Philippines is now on its own to face pressure from the Chinese Coast Guard and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which the Philippine government has been unable to do anything about the clashes that erupted this month over Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels at Second Thomas Shoal, during which the Chinese coast guard boarded a Philippine ship for the first time and seized weapons from Filipino sailors.
Facts have proved that Duterte's line is the right one, and the Philippines must have good relations with both China and the United States, and no matter which side is offended, it will not benefit the Philippines.