PHILIPPINE relations with the United States are not expected to undergo any major change with the election of a new US president. We remain a close ally of the US, although we have also developed new ties with China. President Duterte has been able to maintain close relations with both US President Trump and China President Xi Jinping. He will be able to maintain the same close ties with President Biden.
Many nations, including the Philippines, are more concerned with the depths to which the world economy has sunk because of the pandemic. The Democratic Party victory in the election should improve US relations with China and that should boost world trade and the international economy.
Philippine economists noted last week that the Philippine peso closed at its strongest level in the last four years, propped by generally positive sentiment in the global stock markets, boosted, they believe, by the impending Biden victory.
More relaxed US immigration policies are expected to benefit Overseas Filipino Workers with an expected increase in outsourcing by American companies. This should boost foreign exchange inflows and help the country rise from the recession caused by the COVID- 19 pandemic.
The incoming Biden administration is expected to result in a more receptive American environment for Filipino migrant workers. Since January, 2019, the US Homeland Security of the Trump administration has banned Filipinos and citizens of certain other nations from receiving H-2A and H-2B visas for migrant workers needed for temporary work in agriculture, construction, hotels, and resorts. “We are hoping that under the Biden administration, the Philippines will be returned to the list of countries whose nationals are eligible for the special migrant work visas,” Deputy Speaker Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur said.
For this and many other reasons, we welcome the new US administration. “On behalf of the Filipino nation, President Duterte wishes to extend its warm congratulations to former Vice President Joseph “Joe” Biden on his election as the new president of the United States of America,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Sunday.
The leaders of other nations all over the world have also sent their congratulations, with many expressing hopes of unity and cooperation after four years of difficulties with the Trump administration. A new era of hope seems to be dawning all over the world with the election of the new US president.