The President’s pragmatic but bold foreign policy

A FIRESTORM has been whipped up by the news that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during the visit of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, agreed to accelerate and expand the implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the two countries by adding four more US bases from where US troops can operate in various parts of the Philippines. The blowback came not only from the usual crowd of the progressive left, but now includes loyalists of former president Rodrigo Duterte. The former is expected, considering that this cohort has always been opposed to the presence of foreign bases in…