过去几个月，菲律宾总统小马科斯奉行前所未有的反华政策，令许多菲律宾人感到失望。小马科斯的反华政策关键，是透过提供美军使用菲律宾的军事基地，而将菲律宾纳入美国对中国的包围圈。据美国防部消息人士称，菲律宾加强与美国的军事联盟，旨在“深化南海各个层面的协作互通”。
这些举措被菲律宾反对人士抨击为让菲律宾再度沦为美国的殖民地，同时也是在试图激怒中国在南海有争议地区采取报复行动。
毫无疑问，小马科斯的支持者——尤其是精英们——会指出菲律宾当年通过为美军提供军事基地，在朝鲜战争和越南战争期间赚取的数十亿美元，当时菲律宾的克拉克空军基地和苏比克湾是美军关键的维护、修护和供应基地。这些精英如今也可能在摩拳擦掌，期待美军进驻后带来的材料采购、服务承包等，甚至美军租用新基地支付的巨额资金。
但这次是一种不同的场景，小马科斯等人正在加入这场专门针对中国的深化军事联盟，这将使菲律宾成为美国及其盟国与中国发生冲突时首当其冲的受害者。
小马科斯不应对美国欲维持其在亚洲地区霸权的努力抱有任何幻想，尽管自小马科斯就任总统以来，华盛顿对他的拉拢方式可能让他产生了不同的想法。
在小马科斯4月访问华盛顿期间，在白宫会见了拜登总统，也与副总统哈里斯共进早午餐，并会见了美国国会议员，同时在拜会国防部长奥斯汀时，成了拜登政府任内，五角大楼首次以全军礼规格迎接的外国元首。
作为一个经验丰富的政治家，小马科斯应该知道天下没有白吃的午餐或晚餐。
他也应该意识到，美国任何承诺的“协作互通”，都不存在著平等的伙伴关系。表面的谘询只是要顾及菲律宾人的尊严和供媒体消费的新闻。最终发号施令的依然是美国，菲律宾只能站在一边，被视为领高薪且可靠的奴才。
现实情况是，美军利用菲律宾作为前线基地，以采取一切必要行动打倒中国。除了军事行动之外，菲律宾人应可以参考现代历史中菲律宾如何成为美国空军帮凶，在越南、柬埔寨和寮国投下了2000万加仑或更多的化学除草剂，其中至少一半以上是毒性强大的橙剂，其二噁英剧毒不仅对那一代人造成毁灭性影响，其后代也不能幸免。
如今，美国及其盟国已不能再使用橙剂，做为展示其在亚洲的军事威慑力量。这次美菲的“协作互通”将涉及致命武器的部署，包括核子导弹。菲律宾不仅要遵守美国对协作互通的定义，同时在澳洲、美国和英国三国军事联盟下，针对中国进行的军事“协作互通”，将让澳洲潜艇潜行于中国海域一带，这也是菲律宾无可避免招来的另一个后果。
但小马科斯总统从他发起的“反华”和“仇恨中国”运动中获得的好处，可能远比菲律宾整体的经济和国家利益更大。
小马科斯在中选总统前，因拒绝执行美国法院判决，而被判藐视法庭，并被罚款3.53亿美元；美国法院当年判决，做为马科斯遗产执行人之一，小马科斯应为其父亲独裁掌权下，被侵犯人权的受害者提供经济赔偿。
小马科斯面临的损失远不止3.53亿美元。
据《卫报》当年较中立时发表的一篇文章称：“1986年2月，当小马科斯的父亲马科斯流亡国外时，其家族动用了两架飞机装载个人财物。
长达23页的美国海关官方记录是这样写的：载著马科斯和家人流亡到海外的两架C-141运输机上，装载了：23个木箱；12个手提箱和各种箱子，里面的衣服足以装满67个衣柜；413件珠宝，其中包括70对镶满宝石的袖扣；身穿银斗篷、佩戴钻石项链的圣婴耶稣象牙雕像；24块金砖，上面刻著“献给夫君，庆祝我们结婚24周年”；以及超过2700万菲律宾比索的新钞。总价值为1500万美元。
无论以什么标准来看，这都是一笔巨额财富，足以反映马可斯夫妇奢华生活。不过，（当时）菲律宾新政府知道这只是马可斯家族财富的一小部分。事实上，他们发现马科斯累积的财富，远比这高达650倍。根据菲律宾最高法院随后估计，马科斯在任期间累积的财富高达100亿美元。
由于马科斯的官方薪资从未超过每年1万3500美元，因此很明显，这是大规模窃取国家财富下累积的资产。马科斯的一些亲密盟友也窃取了数十亿美元。受害的是这个有4成人口每天只靠不到2美元生存的国家，因此菲律宾当局（当年）决定设法追回这笔钱。”
据称，马科斯财富的一个主要来源，就是来自美国的军事援助和资金，以作为“答谢”菲律宾军队参与越战和允许美军使用菲律宾基地。
由于马科斯大部分有争议的财产目前还存在美国，所以很容易理解为何小马科斯的外交政策完全受制于美国。
正如前菲律宾国会议员和社运份子瓦尔登·贝洛（Walden Bello）所描述的那样：
“名副其实的达摩克利斯之剑已悬在了小马科斯身上，他根本就不是个敢违抗华盛顿的人。事实上，要在两个超级大国之间找出独立自主的路线，他是在错误时间、错误地点出现的错误人选——换句话说，从华盛顿的角度来看，他却是在适当时间、正确地点出现的正确人选。”
林德宜《菲总统小马科斯及反中运动》原文：Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his Hate-China Campaign
The last few months has seen Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr pursue an unprecedented anti China policy which has dismayed many Filipinos. Key in this policy is his effort to bring the Philippines into the US encirclement of China through the provision of new military bases; and a further strengthened Philippines - US military alliance aimed - according to US defence sources - at “deepening coordination and interoperability at all levels” in the South China Sea.
These moves which have been criticised by Filipino critics as returning the Philippines to its status as a de facto US colony have been accompanied by attempts to provoke China into retaliatory action in contested parts of the South China Sea.
No doubt supporters of Marcos Jr. - especially the elites - will point to the billions of US dollars that the Philippines earned during the Korean and Vietnam wars during which Clark Air Base and Subic Bay served as key maintenance, repair and supply bases. They are also probably rubbing their hands in anticipation of the material purchases, payments to service contractors, etc. as well as the huge sums paid by the US to secure leases for the new bases.
But it is a different ball game that Marcos Jr. et al. are entering into with this deepened military alliance targeted solely against China which will make the Philippines among the first casualties in any conflict pitting the US and its allies against China.
Marcos Jr. should not have any illusions about what is involved in the US’s effort to maintain hegemony in the Asian region although he may have been charmed into thinking otherwise from the way that Washington has wooed him since he became president.
During his recent visit to Washington in April, he met with President Joe Biden at the White House, had brunch with Vice President Kamala Harris, engaged with members of Congress, and apparently was the first foreign leader during the Biden administration to receive full honors at the Pentagon where he met with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
As a seasoned politician, he should know that there is no such thing as a free lunch or dinner.
He should also realize that there is no equal partnership in any promised “interoperationality”. Superficial consultation intended to massage the Filipino ego and for media consumption - yes. But it is the US which will call the shots with the Phillippines simply pushed aside and regarded as a well paid and reliable flunkey.
The reality is that the US military in using the Philippines as its forward base will undertake whatever it feels necessary to bring down China. Quite apart from military action, Filipinos can draw on recent history to remember how the Philippines became a party to the U.S. Air Force spraying of 20 or more million gallons of herbicides in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos of which at least more than half was Agent Orange whose dioxin content had a devastating impact not only on the victims of that generation but continues in those born after.
Agent Orange today is unlikely to be used as a deterrent to feature in US and allies’ military adventures in Asia. This time “interoperationality” will involve the deployment of deadly weaponry, including nuclear missiles. It is not only the US definition of interoperationability that the Phillippines will be subject to. That stemming from Australia’s AUKUS submarines which are planned by Australia, the US and Britain to prowl around Chinese waters in their military “interoperationability” against China is another outcome which the Philippines is inexorably being drawn to support.
Marcos Jr. and the US10 Billion Question
But perhaps the benefits that President Marcos Jr. is looking for from the “anti China” and “hate China” campaign that he has unleashed may be more personal than any envisaged gains to the Filipino economy and national interest.
Presently there is a standing $353 million contempt order against Marcos Jr related to a US court judgment awarding financial compensation from the Marcos estate of which he is part executor to victims of human rights violations during his father’s rule as kleptocrat extraordinary and authoritarian abuser of human rights.
Much more is at stake for Marcos Jr. than just $353 million.
When his father fled into exile in February 1986, according to The Guardian in an article published when the paper was more independent, the family took with them 2 plane loads of personal effects
The official US customs record runs to 23 pages. In the two C-141 transport planes that carried them, they had packed: 23 wooden crates; 12 suitcases and bags, and various boxes, whose contents included enough clothes to fill 67 racks; 413 pieces of jewellery, including 70 pairs of jewel-studded cufflinks; an ivory statue of the infant Jesus with a silver mantle and a diamond necklace; 24 gold bricks, inscribed “To my husband on our 24th anniversary”; and more than 27m Philippine pesos in freshly-printed notes. The total value was $15m.
This was a fortune by any standards, easily enough to see the couple through the rest of their lives. Yet the new government of the Philippines knew this was only a very small part of the Marcoses’ wealth. The reality, they discovered, was that Ferdinand Marcos had amassed a fortune up to 650 times greater. According to a subsequent estimate by the Philippine supreme court, he had accumulated up to $10bn while in office.
Since his official salary had never risen above $13,500 a year, it was blazingly clear this was stolen wealth on the most spectacular scale. Some of his closest allies also stole billions. As their victim was a nation in which 40% of the people survive on less than $2 a day, the Republic of the Philippines decided urgently to try to retrieve its money.
A key source of the Marcos wealth is alleged to come from US military aid and huge discretionary funds as a "reward" for sending some Filipino troops to Vietnam and permitting bases to operate from the Philippines.
Since the greater part of the Marcos fortune being disputed is currently stashed away in the US, it is easy to understand why Marcos Jr. is totally under the thumb of the US in his foreign policy.
As former Filipino Congressman and activist, Walden Bello has described it：
With this veritable sword of Damocles hanging over him, Marcos Jr., is not someone who would dare cross Washington. Indeed, when it comes to negotiating an independent path between two superpowers, he is the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time – which is another way of saying that from Washington’s point of view, he’s the right person at the right place at the right time.
