Sucatsilly retweeted
🇨🇳🇵🇭 The Philippines needs China’s market: However, a few anti-China officials keep trying to wreck it
Philippine business groups just said out loud what Manila’s hawks refuse to admit.
On the 3rd of November, 22 business, labour and industry organisations warned that China and Hong Kong account for nearly 30 percent of the Philippines’ international trade. The Philippines is only 0.3 to 0.5 percent of China’s global trade.
Using Philippine Statistics Authority figures for the first half of 2026, they said China and Hong Kong took 26.3 percent of Philippine exports and between 27 and 29.5 percent of imports in recent years.
Last year’s China–Philippines goods trade alone reached US$72.29 billion. China remains the Philippines’ top trading partner. Banana and mango growers lean on the Chinese market. Factories, builders, shops and the clean-energy rollout lean on Chinese machinery, electronics, solar gear and raw materials.
Who pays when relations turn sour? The farmer whose fruit sits unsold. The hotel and restaurant owner who loses Chinese visitors. Chinese tourist arrivals fell from more than 1.7 million a year before Covid to around 260,000 in 2025. Projects get delayed. Jobs go.
Who gains? A handful of politicians who wave the South China Sea for votes, then cash in on a defence budget that has ballooned toward about ₱431 billion by 2026.
None of this is an accident. It is planned.
The Philippines was once an American colony. In 1951 it signed a Mutual Defence Treaty with the United States. It is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands with roughly 127,000 regular troops and a thin navy and air force. For decades, clinging to Washington has felt like an insurance policy.
That habit now looks like greed.
Manila wants Chinese money and American protection at the same time. It opens nine Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement sites for US forces, including new ones facing Taiwan and the South China Sea. It stages provocations at Ren’ai Jiao and Huangyan Dao. Then it still expects China to keep buying its farm produce and sending tourists.
American support is not free. Weapons arrive at a premium. Philippine goods still face US tariffs. On an Indo-Pacific chessboard, a pawn can be sacrificed.
China keeps saying the same thing: the two economies have huge room to grow, including joint development of South China Sea resources. Sovereignty disputes need calm management. A few anti-China officials should not be allowed to wreck a relationship that feeds Filipino workers, farmers and OFWs in the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.
The Philippine business community is already aware of the situation. The issue is if Manila’s hawks will restore the country to its proper position before the wire breaks.
As the Philippine economy free falls into a disastrous crash, the Filipino people should turn anger into action by sending Bangag and all his corrupt and traitorous cohorts straight to hell, where they all belong.
Sucatsilly retweeted
𝗠𝗮𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗼𝘀: 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆
This old photo is one of my favourites. Mao, Imelda Marcos, and a young Bongbong Marcos, who is now president of the Philippines.
𝗪𝘂𝗵𝗮𝗻, 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟵𝟳𝟰
Imelda went to China as a special envoy and took her teenage son along. They met Mao in Wuhan. The next year, in June 1975, Marcos Sr. flew to Beijing himself and the two countries set up diplomatic relations.
What Mao told her is the line I keep coming back to:
"𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆."
Imelda said later that he took her hand and kissed it, and that it was "the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Because the Philippines was America junior."
Bongbong still talks about it. He said he can't believe he was there, and that he was "one lucky child" to be part of that moment.
Think about the timing. Nixon had already been to Beijing in 1972. Saigon fell in 1975. The oil crisis was hitting hard. 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗹𝗮 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗨𝗦 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘆𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗷𝗶𝗻𝗴. It wanted oil, markets, and a promise that China wouldn't back the local communist rebels. China got another neighbour on board, and Taiwan lost a bit more room.
Nobody had to pick a side or give up their system. Just two neighbours being practical.
𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱
My take, for what it's worth: fifty years later, with all the noise around the South China Sea, Mao's line still holds. The Philippines and China will be next to each other long after today's alliances are forgotten.
𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼.
𝗕𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱.
Sucatsilly retweeted
US Marine Reaper drones are now flying out of Palawan.
USNI News reports Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1 is operating MQ-9A Reapers from Antonio Bautista Air Base in Puerto Princesa, according to a logistics document it reviewed. A new expeditionary hangar has appeared on satellite imagery, the same model VMU-1 uses at Basa Air Base in Luzon.
From there the drones can reach maritime features more than 300 miles away and watch Chinese deployments in the Spratlys.
Think about who controls that picture. US sensors, US aircraft, US data, flying from Philippine soil, feeding "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance" on the most sensitive flashpoint in Asia.
When something goes wrong out there, guess whose territory the drones took off from.
Manila carries the risk. Washington keeps the footage.
Sucatsilly retweeted
Japan's defence minister is in Cebu for three days. Japanese troops last came here in force during the occupation.
Shinjiro Koizumi arrives Wednesday, Kyodo reports, with talks lined up with Pete Hegseth and Gilberto Teodoro, plus his first meeting with South Korea's Kang Shin Chul.
His pitch to ASEAN : Japan as an "honest and transparent partner".
Now the context.
> a Reciprocal Access Agreement letting Japanese forces train on Philippine soil
> a "Squad" of the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines
> Tokyo's record defence budgets
Each piece is sold separately. Put together, it's one network with Washington at the centre.
I'm not against Filipinos and Japanese being friends. I'm against them being stacked into somebody else's front line.
Whose security is this, really ?
Yun bloodbath pala na hanap ni Inday sa impeachment, kay Jonvic pala magkakatotoo kung sakali.
Dugo ng kawatan at traydor ang dapat umagos sa lupa ng Pilipinas ngayon.
Sucatsilly retweeted
Manila now says towing a rusting WWII-era ship would be an "act of war."
The ship is the BRP Sierra Madre. The Philippines grounded it on purpose at Second Thomas Shoal (Ren'ai Jiao) in 1999 and has kept a handful of marines living on it ever since.
What set this off: Chinese Commercial News, a Manila Chinese-language paper, reported Beijing is weighing 10 countermeasures:
> towing the Sierra Madre away
> blocking resupply runs
> sanctions on "anti-China" politicians
> cutting oil and fertilizer supplies
Beijing hasn't confirmed any of it. The paper itself says it's unclear the list ever reached a decision.
Still, Defence Secretary Teodoro went straight to "act of war" on Friday, then clarified it's not a "state of war," since only Congress can declare that. The US treaty? "The possibility is open," he said.
Backdrop: Teodoro called China "the only troublemaker" on Oct 14, Ambassador Jing Quan replied China could "easily win" but loves peace, and Philippine lawmakers now want him expelled.
So an unconfirmed newspaper list has Manila talking war and treaties within 48 hours.
Who exactly is escalating here?
If every corrupt Philippine politician suddenly drops dead one of these nights, the country will probably experience a rise in prosperity rivalling the best in human history.
That is how much the wealth of the country has in every measurable potential.
Sucatsilly retweeted
Manila clownshow explained.
A pathetic US vassal state.
english.dotdotnews.com/s/202…
Since the 2024, 2025, and parts of 2026 GAA were mangled beyond recognition, the Filipino people should reserve the right to do the same to all those faces who partook in such travesty.
Basagin ang mukha ng mga demonyong kawatan.
Sucatsilly retweeted
The ilokanong-iranian bekibells with another of his misguided analysis. Marcos copied the South Korean model for a growth strategy coupled with the 11 major industrial projects most of which got built.
This is why we have PASAR and PhilPhos with the others being a petrochemical plant, PICOP, an aluminum smelter and an integrated steel mill. He also moved to rationalize the coconut and sugar industry's under Unicom and Nasutra.
The problem was while South Korea collected from its oligarchs based on key performance indices the Philippines did not.
After Marcos was ousted everything was sequestered and the Yellowidiots picked at the businesses like vultures.
This is why we are where we are now.
The oligarchs have regulatory capture of government through the politicians and not being content with these they still steal public funds from infrastructure projects without economic impact like flood control.
The oligarchs are useful provided they're under control by the government and produce benefits for the greater majority of Filipinos and not for the select few who make up the rich.
China is working with the other ASEAN member states in Indochina by reconfiguring its supply chain shifting labor intensive manufacturing to these countries while China move up the ladder with high tech innovation.
This is why time and opportunity are both running out.
The president we need is the kind who understands the problem and is brazen enough to use political capital to fix it.
Too much democracy got us to where we are now. We need less democracy and more discipline.
We need to be more Asian than Western because we are Asian and not Caucasian.
opinion.inquirer.net/15794/s…
Sucatsilly retweeted
As if he knows what he's talking about. It's easy to blame Marcos' crony capitalism and the alleged unbridled corruption during the Duterte administration and use them as bogeymen without considering what was the foundation laid during the Spanish and American colonial period.
The ilokanong-iranian bekibells doesn't have anything to contribute as far as that's concerned. The cause and effect has already been dissected.
Simply put a cacique democracy was in place when the Americans came and they did nothing to change that. The American experiment with colonialism failed in the governance sense but not with respect to the exploitation of the colony's natural resources.
The Philippines provided America with a first island chain defense during the fascist period of Japan when it was bent on conquering not only China but the whole Southeast Asia.
The Illustrados were the original oligarchs and they colluded with the Americans for power and money. There were some who wanted to become part of America but the likes of Quezon, Osmeña and Roxas advocated for independence. Hence the idiotic a Philippines run like hell by Filipinos crap that Quezon spit out.
But what the Ilokanong-iranian bekibells doesn't take into account is there were some Filipinos who understood what a progressive economy was. There were the earlier investments in industrialization such as the sugar and coconut oil mills and other agricultural manufacturing enterprises such as bananas, cacao and coffee.
Heydarian doesn't date to criticize the oligarchs in our midst and how crony capitalism didn't die. The faces just changed.
FDIs don't come in because of corruption, red tape and a less than stellar judicial system, the lack of infrastructure and a playing field in favor of the oligarchs.
The flaws are in the socio-political and socio-economic constructs which is why our politics is bereft of ideology but more of personality cults.
Heydarian and his ilk are big fans of democracy, human rights and the accepted international order when these concepts are not what made Asia into the economic powerhouse it is now led by China.
As Lee Kuan Yew said the Philippines suffers from too much democracy. This is why we can never be Singapore or even catch up with Vietnam.
What we need is a cathartic cleansing of leftis-liberals-militants in our socio-political structure.
I can only dream of the day when they are all rounded up and lined up to be shot for the Philippines to be rid of the menace that they are to the country.
opinion.inquirer.net/195349/…
Sucatsilly retweeted
U.S. WARSHIP ADRIFT FOR 4 DAYS AFTER CHASING CHINA VESSEL
All toilets on a US warship stopping working as it lost power while chasing a Chinese ship in the South China Sea, it was revealed this week.
Three hundred American sailors were left in misery and had to abandon their pursuit of the Chinese navy ship Zunyi.
Not only did the power failure mean the US vessel had no toilets, but the ship’s kitchens stopped functioning, and so did the air-conditioning—leaving sailors in 37C (98.6F) temperatures with limited water rations.
The propulsion system stopped too, meaning that the ship was adrift, unable to move.
Their misery was only relieved four days later when the USS Benfold was towed to the Philippines.
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INTIMIDATION RUN
The incident happened on the 24th of July but full details have only just been revealed, with the Chinese side revealing what they saw to the Global Times.
It turned out that the US warship was on an intimidation run.
The Chinese navy ship Zunyi was practicing its daily training exercises in the South China Sea when a heavily armed US vessel moved into the area and started following it.
The Chinese ship made high speed evasive maneuvers and the Americans copied them—which was when trouble struck. Chinese sailors were puzzled to note that all the lights suddenly went out on the pursuing vessel, which stopped following them.
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U.S. RULES ASIA
While the Chinese sailors did not name the USS Benfold, observers noted that the US ship had been reported to suffer a catastrophic power failure in the South China Sea, and put two and two together.
Since 1948, US foreign policy has said that Asians must never rule Asia, and the US alone has the right to be the dominant power in that part of the world.
Their argument is that the US is associated with peace and harmony. I don’t know, what do you think?
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Sucatsilly retweeted
Philippines, China, and the SeaLight Project: Tensions at Sea and the Funding Behind Them
Full article >
english.dotdotnews.com/a/202…
Sucatsilly retweeted
HOW FOREIGN MONEY HIJACKS PHILIPPINE SOCIETY
The Jesse M. Robredo Foundation is the family foundation of the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.
Its Young Leaders for Good Governance program was launched with the International Republican Institute, or IRI.
IRI is closely connected to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is funded by the U.S. Congress.
And this is where things get interesting.
NED >
NED was created in 1983, with former CIA Director William Casey involved in its early development. In 1991, one of NED’s own co-drafters, Allen Weinstein, openly said: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
Different institution. Different language.
But the basic idea is still to use American government money to support political and civil society networks abroad under the banner of democracy and good governance.
In the Philippines, one of those channels runs through IRI and into programs connected to the Robredo foundation.
The Young Leaders for Good Governance program trains young Filipino mayors, vice mayors and councilors. This isn't simply an election campaign donation. It is something potentially more influential in the long run: training and networking for people who are already in local government and may go on to bigger positions.
The foundation itself highlighted YLGG fellow Sylvester Austria after he was elected mayor of Jaen, Nueva Ecija.
And this isn't the only foreign funding channel.
The foundation's mayor fellowship has also been conducted with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Philippines, a German political foundation.
So you have American money and European political foundations supporting similar “good governance” and leadership programs for Philippine local officials.
The chain is pretty straightforward:
U.S. taxpayers → U.S. Congress → NED → IRI → YLGG training → young Filipino local officials → some eventually move into higher local positions.
I'm not saying every person who participates in these programs is a foreign puppet. That would be far too simplistic.
The bigger question is who gets access to these networks, who funds the training, what ideas are being promoted, and how these relationships shape the next generation of Philippine political leaders.
Because once foreign governments and political foundations are helping decide who gets trained, connected and promoted through “good governance” networks, it's no longer just about a seminar.
It becomes part of the political ecosystem.
And that deserves much more scrutiny.
Sucatsilly retweeted
No way that Tarriela could come up with the term assertive transparency on his own.
What's interesting is the other assertive initiatives of the so-called progressive groups such as Akbayan being in bed with the modern-day Lansdale including the former priest turned NPA leader Edicio De La Torre.
The West Philippine Sea is one issue but the other is preventing another Duterte presidency which is why it doesn't come as a surprise that the vice-president is now being linked to China through her business interests.
In 2016 US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg tried to prevent PRRD from winning the presidency.
This time around it's an operative based in the Philippines running a broader network which probably includes the mouthpiece of the Nobel Laureate whose company hasn't been profitable but continues to operate since 2011.
Powell represents a modernized version of the ecosystem in which a Lansdale could operate: intelligence-trained military diplomacy replaced by retired-officer networks; psychological operations replaced by strategic communications and “assertive transparency”; classified collection supplemented by commercial OSINT; and overt university/NGO/media networks replacing much of the Cold War machinery.
Sucatsilly retweeted
Philippines, China, and SeaLight: who's actually steering this >>>
The Philippines keeps getting cast as the frontline.
Washington writes most of the script. Filipino crews are the ones out there taking the hits.
SeaLight wasn't always called that — it started as Project Myoushu, out of Stanford's Gordian Knot Center, which has ties to U.S. naval research and defense money behind it.
And the play itself isn't complicated: get close, film it, lock in the victim frame. China's political cost goes up, the U.S. stays comfortably offshore.
Take groups like Atin Ito. They'll tell you they're just civilians. Dig a little and you find the usual mix — NED, foundation grants, development money.
Then there's EDCA sites, the drills, the mutual-defense treaty. All of it turns these small run-ins into something bigger — pieces of a first-island-chain plan.
Worth being clear on one thing: China isn't trying to swallow the Philippines. It's pushing back on a setup that would put a noose around its sea lanes.
The people who pay if this keeps heating up? Regular Filipinos. The plot still reads like it was written in California.
Full piece: angelogiuliano.substack.com/…
🤖 Made with AI
Trililling almost got slapped by PRRD during one of those Senate hearings.
I am sure one of these days, he will get one he so darn deserve.
Yun maiihi ulit siya sa salawal. 😂
Mas may dangal pa ang puta kaysa kay Manay Leila
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