There's a strong INTERNAL PUSH BACK from LOCAL ELECTED Leaders situated on the area where the supposed agreed upon EDCA sites for American bases are to be built.
Case in point:
If the worst case scenario plays out a sinking of the Philippines Coast Guard due to the increasingly confident, misplaced assumptions of the Philippines Coast Guard/Navy/Military that it'll have the full backing of the U.S. due to the country having a Defense treaty would the U.S. really and willing to waste away their precious military and American lives for the disputed Islands between China and U.S. knowing such a move would invite an opening to the Taiwan Reunification scenario (China would not waste away the opportunity to limit the scope of operations along with limiting its politico-military objectives to the SCS.
The Philippines and some of it's military members are frankly BRAIN DEAD and are highly irresponsible, not to mention illiterate ignorant regarding the disparity of strength, military doctrine, industrial capacity, military education with respect to their Chinese counterparts. I have yet to read any illuminating study by and from the Philippines Military junior and top officers regarding their views on the changing landscape of modern combat that are far more lethal, destructive, and technology driven than ever before.
There was a recent embarrassing moment with their Army SPECIAL FORCES CAPTURED, APPREHENDED by AN ISLAMIST Separatists M.I.L.F. (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) when the SPF were on a mission to hunt another domestic separatist group called CPP-NPA (Communist Party of The Philippines, New People's Army) within the same area/vicinity. Supposedly, the SPF group waded into the ISLAMIST area of control and were quickly surrounded and would have been killed if one of the SPF soldier decided to play American Rambo.
Now, why am I being so down on the Philippine Military? Because they don't have an actual National Strategy to deal with the mess they're trying to invite, no China strategy other than beg and ask America like the b.. Ch that they are. Plus, Philippines military is VERY CORRUPT with military officers using and abusing their junior officers and enlisted soldiers as their chauffeurs, cooks, drivers, cleaners to their ill gotten wealth gained from funding that were budgeted to strengthen or procure x, y, z for their service.
So yeah, let the Philippines volunteer to be on the frontline of stupidity when their economy is shaky due to Covid-19 pandemic, the inflationary spikes causing food prices to be affected greatly which has an indirect and direct cause to the rise in crime and black market stuff for all kind of goods both perishable and non-perishable. I don't know what economic benefits is the U.S. going to provide the Philippines and what guarantee they received that Marcos Jr. is hell bent on antagonizing its relationship with China because he knows his country is going to be FUBAR if it entangle itself with the anti-China b.s. camp firmly with the U.S. no matter what.
