VP Kamala Harris to visit Philippines
Manila, The Gulf Observer: Vice President Kamala Harris would underscore America’s commitment to defending treaty ally the Philippines with a visit that starts Sunday.
After attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Thailand, Harris will fly to Manila Sunday night to meet President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. the next day for talks aimed at reinforcing Washington’s oldest treaty alliance in Asia and strengthening economic ties, a senior U.S. administration official said in an online briefing ahead of the visit.
On Tuesday she’ll fly to Palawan province, which lies along the South China Sea, to meet local fishermen, villagers, officials and the coast guard. She is the highest-ranking U.S. leader so far to visit the frontier island at the forefront of the long-seething territorial disputes involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The Philippine coast guard is expected to welcome Harris onboard one of its biggest patrol ships, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, in Palawan, where she would deliver a speech before coast guard, police, military and government officials, according to coast guard spokesperson Commodore Armand Balilo.
Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said Harris’s trip to Palawan shows the level of America’s support to an ally and concern over China’s actions in the disputed sea.
When President Joe Biden met Marcos Jr. for the first time in September in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, he stressed the depth by which the U.S. regards its relations with the Philippines despite some headwinds.
“We’ve had some rocky times, but the fact is it’s a critical, critical relationship, from our perspective. I hope you feel the same way,” Biden said.
“We continue to look to the United States for that continuing partnership and the maintenance of peace in our region,” Marcos Jr. told Biden. “We are your partners. We are your allies. We are your friends.”
The rapprochement came at a crucial time when the U.S. needed to build a deterrent presence amid growing security threats in the region, Romualdez said.
Philippine military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro said last week that the U.S. wanted to construct military facilities in five more areas in the northern Philippines under a 2014 defense cooperation pact, which allows American forces to build warehouses and temporary living quarters within Philippine military camps. The Philippines Constitution prohibits foreign military bases but at least two defense pacts allow temporary visits by American forces with their aircraft and Navy ships for joint military exercises and training.
Harris also plans to meet Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of Marcos’ predecessor, who oversaw a deadly anti-drugs crackdown that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead and sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity. The vice president has defended her father’s presidency.
Given the Biden administration’s high-profile advocacy for democracy and human rights, its officials have said human rights were at the top of the agenda in each of their engagements with Marcos Jr. and his officials.
After her meeting Monday with Marcos Jr., Harris plans to meet civil society activists to demonstrate “our commitment and continued support for human rights and democratic resilience,” the U.S. official said.
