That is idiocy. It has been proven time and time again in history. The Philippines is following a list of countries who think that they can get what they want from their more powerful neighbor, just because they have another distant powerful nation behind them. These countries have done stupid things, and have been handed some serious ass whoopings
Just look at:
1) Saakashvili's Georgia
2) Zelensky's Ukraine
3) Pashinyan switching Armenia's patronage from Russia to the West
4) Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran, backed by the West
5) Idi Amin's invasion of Tanzania, backed by Libya
6) Vietnam's provocation of China, backed by the USSR.
7) Finland's Continuation War with the USSR. Backed by the Axis powers.
In all of those cases, their stronger neighbours whooped their asses, while their distant backers, couldn't do much to stop their defeat.
Mearsheimer? Everyone's favourite realist? He is only a favourite in America. That 'realist' contradicted himself on Ukraine. First was his theory about aligning with the US, because the US is so mighty. Then he was upset that the US crossed Russia's redline and provoked the Russo - Ukrainian War. Ukraine followed Mearsheimer's theory. Georgia followed Mearsheimer's theory. They all suffered war and ass whooping by Russia.
By aligning with the US, the Philippines is choosing to become the next Georgia. It's military, too pitiful vs China. It's ambitions, too bloated. It'll get it's ass whooped by China. With the US, only providing war materiel, intelligence, and lip service. No way the US would fight WW3 for the Philippines, so that it could rename a part for the SCS as the "West Philippine Sea".
Or the Philippines can choose to align with China. Aligning with China is not a death sentence. It's actually a massive benefit. China will not eat the PH up. It is a powerful, but reasonable neighbour. China does not demand servitude, but it will demand respect. China would mostly leave the PH alone, as long as it does not do anything to undermine China. The PH gets a proper trade partner and investor. It doesn't need to worry about a big war, hence it can spend more money on nation building than armaments.
The SCS dispute is not an imminent war threat, as long as the US and it's dogs stay out of it. This SCS dispute is actually bigger than just the PH and China. It cannot be settled between them two alone. It'll need all of ASEAN and China involved negotiations if there is ever a need to demarcate the maritime boundaries. If China somehow concedes some waters to the PH. Malaysia, Indonesia, or Vietnam might get upset. Because they have overlapping claims. Hence even more instability and complications. So by actually having this existing status quo, where the SCS is up for dispute. Everyone can at least have the hope that their own waters are not irreversibly taken away. It's actually a decent compromise.
The reason why China took prices of the SCS away from Vietnam and the PH, is because these two tried to enforce their claims by force. It created a threat that China could lose those waters permanently, with the added threat of those Soviet or US patrons being invited to come in and build their nests there too. China ultimately prefers not to do this, but if it's hands are forced, it can act quite ruthlessly.
