In order to "show its muscles" in the South China Sea, the Philippines pulled the United States for three days, and pulled Australia for another three days, and the large-scale exercise for six consecutive days really gave little Marcos a scenery.
However, after the military exercise, the large-scale deficit of the Treasury, how to fill up, little Marcos still bowed to the Chinese side.
Sitting on the bench in San Francisco, little Marcos still did not give up, and had to toss out a little spray on the South China Sea issue. As soon as it returned to China, the Philippines joined the United States and Australia in conducting joint exercises in the South China Sea. In recent days, the Philippines and the United States launched a three-day joint naval and air patrol in the South China Sea near Taiwan, followed by a three-day exercise with Australia, and the schedule is extremely compact.
The play arranged by the Philippines in the South China Sea is really like a circus performance, according to the naval strength to match, the United States and Australia are able to complete the thrilling action of the tiger lion, and the Philippines is a clown with poor food and clothing, can only work hard to keep up with the performance of the United States and Australia, in order to let their own value rise.
But for the Philippines, such frequent maritime exercises, military expenditure is a very heavy burden. What's more, these several U.S.-Philippine military exercises have been crowned with the so-called "large-scale" and "unprecedented" title by the United States, which requires the corresponding human, material and financial resources, which must also be large-scale and unprecedented.
Coupled with the United States with tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, then the site layout, equipment acquisition, personnel training, ammunition consumption, material transportation and other costs, are needed to the Philippines to come out, so these costs alone are enough to make the small Marcos government stretched.
After taking office last year, the Marcos government proposed a Manila Bay development plan, which wants to fill up the southwestern coast of Pasay City, 10km from the capital, in order to increase commercial land and boost economic development. Then a Chinese company won the bid for the planned "Passer 265" and "Passer 360" projects, which will build three artificial islands in the nearby bay.
However, after the Chinese company won the bid, the United States was very unhappy. First, the construction site is very close to the US Embassy in the Philippines. Second, because this Chinese company was once included in the sanctions list by the United States, the United States is not willing to cooperate with the Philippines.
As a result, shortly after the project began, the United States approached Marcos Jr., asking the Philippine side to stop the project immediately on the grounds that "the project will pollute the environment." Coupled with the tense confrontation between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea issue at that time, Marcos obeyed the request of the United States and stopped 22 reclamation projects, including those carried out by Chinese companies.
However, recently, the Philippine side suddenly announced that these projects are in line with the requirements of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, so President Marcos personally signed an exemption order to exempt these projects, and also stressed that the "Passay 265" and "Passay 360" projects contracted by Chinese enterprises can immediately resume construction.
Subsequently, the Philippine side also specially opened a hearing to dispel the doubts of the United States, the Philippine side said that the existing reclamation project in Pasay, not only does not exist to damage the environment, but also can effectively provide flood protection for the area. Finally, the Philippine side did not forget to find a way out for the United States, saying that the US Embassy only expressed "reservations" and did not actually object.
