Philippines (2012 onwards, inc OEF)

[Bill Moore]

http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/...and+Stripes%29

Philippine president blames US for Middle East violence

The new Philippine president blamed U.S. intervention for the bloody conflicts in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries in his latest criticism of Manila's closest security ally.

The new President appears ready to walk his own path. Very direct, and not relying on conventional wisdom. In some ways he seems to have some pragmatic ideas, and in other areas he appears to be grasping at straws. It could be another interesting few years in the Philippines.

They forced their way to Iraq ... look at Iraq now, look what happened to Libya, look what happened to Syria," he told the Muslim community in southern Davao city in a ceremony marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. "People are being annihilated there including children."

The former Davao mayor has said he would be a leftist president who would chart a foreign policy not dependent on the United States.

He has pointed out the benefits of nurturing friendly relations with Beijing, including a Chinese offer of financing railway projects in the Philippines. The country has had frosty ties with China under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who bolstered security ties with the U.S. to deter China's assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.

[AdamG]

(CNN)The Philippines top diplomat has told a forum in Washington that his country "cannot forever be the little brown brothers of America."
Philippines Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay made the comments after a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington Thursday, during which he described the US relationship with the Philippines as cooperative and symbiotic.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/16/asia/l...hilippines-us/

[davidbfpo]

A critical commentary on the 'Panic about IS in the Philippines', with the Abu Sayyaf group being the focus:https://theconversation.com/panic-about-is-in-the-philippines-masks-a-very-real-war-in-the-country-65196?

"More of the same" the author concludes:

For now, the spectre of IS in South-East Asia is a case of an awful lot of smoke and very little fire. And as Duterte joins in the hyperbole, many of the Philippines’ same old mistakes are already being repeated.