THE Philippines was a colony of the United States for less than half a century, after three and a half centuries of Spanish rule, but 72 years after the country regained its independence in 1946, Filipinos continue to look at the US with the highest regard.
In a Pulse Asia survey conducted last December 14-21, 2018, 84 percent of those polled in the nationwide survey named the US as the country in which they had “a great deal/fair amount of trust” – up from 79 percent in a previous poll in March, 2017.
The poll listed five other major nations on which the respondents expressed their trust and distrust. Next to the US in the trust survey were Japan, 75 percent; Australia, 72 percent; the United Kingdom, 57 percent; Russia, 45 percent; and China, 39 percent. Japan was an enemy nation those military forces occupied the Philippines for three years in World War II, but it is seen today by Filipinos as their closest ally among Asian nations.
The survey listed China as having a distrust rating of 60 percent; followed by Russia, 54 percent; UK, 40 percent; Australia, 27 percent; Japan, 24 percent; and the US, 16 percent. This perception of China is believed related to recent incidents in the South China Sea (SCS) where China has built up garrisons on a string of reefs, while claiming most of the SCS as its sovereign territory.
The high regard of Filipinos for the US is believed due to their sharing of core values such as democracy, their common use of the English language, their historic alliance in World War II, and the continuing goodwill highlighted only last month by the return of the Balangiga Bells to Samar.
President Duterte has made great efforts to develop closer ties with China, which has extended so much economic assistance in these past two years. But it may take time for Filipinos to begin trusting China, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo commented on the Pulse Asia survey.
The Philippines today seeks close and friendly relations with all nations, including those with which we have had conflicts in the past. We have today the closest of ties with the US and China, the world’s two superpowers which have their own big problems in their relationship with each other, including an ongoing trade war.
In a recent speech at the inauguration of the new building of the Bases Development and Conversion Authority (BCDA) in Clark Global City in Pampanga, former President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo stressed the importance of friendship with the two superpowers.
A wide gulf separates Filipinos’ perception and attitude towards the US and China as seen in the recent Pulse Asia survey, but in time, we should be able to realize the value and importance of our relations with these two nations, gaining from them while helping to bridge their present differences.
