As Marcos faces the Trump test, can Philippines count on continued US support?

Analysts warn that Donald Trump’s transactional style will require President Marcos to demonstrate his country’s strategic importance

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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr at last month’s Asean summits in Laos. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 10 Nov 2024Updated: 8:05am, 10 Nov 2024

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr was quick to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory in the US presidential election and express optimism for a robust partnership between their countries, but analysts say navigating Trump’s transactional style will require Marcos to sell him on Manila’s strategic importance.

“We look forward to working with President-elect Trump on a wide range of issues that will yield mutual benefits to two nations with deep ties, shared beliefs, common vision, and a long history of working together,” Marcos said in a statement on Wednesday, hours before voting in the United States had officially ended.

Emphasising the durability of their countries’ partnership, Marcos said he was optimistic that the “unshakeable alliance, tested in war and peace, will be a force of good that will blaze a path of prosperity and amity, in the region, and in both sides of the Pacific”.

He also drew on a personal connection, recalling meeting Trump in his youth: “So I know that his robust leadership will result in a better future for all of us.”

Analysts say Marcos and Trump share another commonality: political comebacks.

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and his mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, visit the tomb of his father after a mass to commemorate All Saints’ Day on November 1. Photo: AFP

Both enjoy a populist pedigree, having risen to power amid a global tide of disillusionment with traditional forms of governance, Vincent Kyle Parada, a former defence analyst for the Philippine Navy, told This Week in Asia.