US-Philippines Society says relations between two countries remains stable

Relations between the Philippines and the United States remains stable even as the former has leaned more towards China recently, the US-Philippines Society (USPS) said Tuesday.

"Inherently, I think the US-Philippine relationship has a lot going forward," former US Ambassador to the Philippines John Negroponte told reporters in a press conference in Makati City.

Negroponte currently serves as co-chair of the USPS, along with local businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

"I think stable, and certainly one word I would attach to the US-Philippine relationship, I would say, promising," he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte's leadership has seen the Philippines cozying up to China amid the dispute over South China Sea.

During the first few months of his presidency in 2016, Duterte announced he was prepared to deal more with China and Russia.

In October 2016, Duterte declared that he was breaking the Philippines' long-standing military and economic alliance with the US.
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/585803/duterte-declares-break-from-us-in-military-economics/story/

Since President Donald Trump took over the oval office, however, Duterte has had a change of tone regarding his relations with America.

"If you look at the relationship, it's a very holistic one. I mean it has all the different elements you could imagine in bilateral arrangement including the people aspect, the cultural exchange," said Negroponte.

"You also have the remittances that come from the Philippine community in the US which is close to 10 billion dollars a year, so just that alone represents an important contribution to the Philippine community, not to mention significant American investment here in business process automation," he added.

This was echoed by Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez, who noted that the relationship between the two countries remains stable.

"I would describe the relationship right now with the United States -- Philippines and United States -- as stable, and I think going in the right direction," he said.

"We have been reaching out to our neighbor China, as well all know that there's been a hiatus for a quite number of years and so we had to reach out to them," added Romualdez. —LDF, GMA News