Richard Heydarian is a senior lecturer at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines and author of "The Indo-Pacific: Trump, China and the New Struggle for Global Mastery."
After six years of fruitless flirtation with China and Russia under former President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines has rapidly transformed into a pivotal element of America's Indo-Pacific strategy. Since coming to power in 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has steadily recalibrated his country's foreign policy and, accordingly, adopted a more uncompromising stance in the South China Sea disputes.
