MANILA - A meeting between US President Donald Trump and Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte in Manila on Monday follows a stormy 16 months in their nations' decades-long alliance.
Here are 5 things to know about relations between the United States and one of its oldest allies in Asia.
FORMER COLONY
The Philippines went from centuries of Spanish rule to becoming a US colony in 1898 under the Treaty of Paris that was signed to end the Spanish-American war.
The colonial period began with a 3-year resistance, which claimed the lives of more than 20,000 Filipino nationalists and 4,200 American troops, according to US government historical records.
In 1941, Japanese forces invaded the Philippines and began more than three years of brutal occupation. The Americans later returned to liberate the nation and it gained independence in 1946, marking the start of a 71-year alliance.
TREATY ALLIES
The Philippines and the United States signed a mutual defense treaty in 1951 pledging to help each other if they were attacked by an external enemy.
The nation is one of only 2 American defense treaty allies in Southeast Asia, along with Thailand.
US-BACKED DICTATOR
Ferdinand Marcos ruled the Philippines for 20 years with US backing despite allegedly overseeing widespread rights abuses and embezzling up to $10 billion from state coffers.
The United States backed Marcos, who went from democratic hopeful to dictator, as he guaranteed strategic US bases in the Philippines and was seen as a bulwark against communism.
In 1986, a famous "People Power" uprising toppled Marcos, sending him and his family into exile in Hawaii.
SHUTTING BASES
Nearly a century of major US military presence ended in 1992 when the Philippines closed 2 of America's biggest Asian bases. The Filipino Senate rejected a treaty extension following rising popular sentiment against the United States.
However the Philippines' maritime dispute with China over the South China Sea, and US concerns over Islamic militancy in the restive south, brought the nation back into an American embrace.
The allies signed a Visiting Forces Agreement in 1998 and a 2014 accord that led to increased defence cooperation, including more annual joint military exercises.
DUTERTE TIRADES
Duterte's election last year brought a sudden reversal of the policy of his predecessor, Benigno Aquino.
The outspoken leader launched a war on drugs that was condemned by the administration of then-US President Barack Obama.
Duterte responded by announcing his "separation" from the United States and pursuing closer ties with China and Russia.
But Duterte has recently said the nations are "best of friends" again after receiving praise from Trump about the drug war.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - Pia Wurtzbach swears by her Miss Universe crown that a local chocolate brand is better than the foreign competition, so much so that she sent a box to Hollywood blogger Perez Hilton.
And when Pacific Rim leaders converge in the Philippines this week to discuss free trade and nuclear tensions in the Korean peninsula, their spouses will get dark chocolates from Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown.
Filipino chocolatiers are pushing back against imported candies that are being offered at cheaper prices while building niche markets abroad.
"Kapag tinanggal mo yang mga brand na yan, hindi mo talaga mapapansin yung difference kasi masarap talaga siya," Wurtzbach told ABS-CBN News.
(If you strip the brand names, you won't notice the difference because it's really delicious.)
Hilton asked for samples of the chocolate brand she was endorsing when she posted a photo on Instagram, Wurtzbach said. The gossip writer was among judges who voted unanimously for the Filipina beauty queen during the 2015 Miss Universe Pageant.
Foreign brands such as Cadbury and Meiji have been offering smaller servings at around P20 per bar to compete on price with local brands such as Goya, endorsed by Wurtzbach.
Still, Filipinos prefer local brands due to their "level of sweetness that suits local taste preferences," research firm Euromonitor International said in a study.
Chocolates and chocolate-covered bars such as Nips and Cloud 9 from tycoon John Gokongwei's Universal Robina, accounted for 61 percent of the market last year, according to Euromonitor.
Davao-based Malagos Chocolates has built a steady following abroad with its dark chocolate bars and tablets that dissolve into drinks. Spouses of ASEAN leaders will get to try both this week, courtesy of Honeylet Avancena, the President's partner.
Philippine cacao gives Malagos Chocolates its unique flavor, said lead chocolatier Rex Puentespina told ABS-CBN News.
"It has to be local because we really have to promote sustainability para magtulong-tulungan tayo (We need to help each other)," he said.
Malagos is experimenting with chocolate-covered dried fruits and more Instagram-friendly packaging to attract more clients, especially in hotels, Puentespina said.
The company's foreign clients include a Singaporean ice cream shop that uses Malagos in its concoctions, he said.
"Tourism arrivals there is very high and it's close to us, but it's a tough market also because all the major brands are there and they are price-sensitive, he said.
For Wurtzbach, international recognition for Philippine chocolates is overdue.
"I think it's about time na ma-recognize worldwide ang isang Filipino brand na kaya din naman to be at par with international brands," she said.
(I think it's about time that a Filipino brand is recognized worldwide, that it can be at par with international brands.)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SUBIC- United States President Donald Trump is no stranger to controversy and has often come in for sharp criticism both at home and overseas, but in the town of Subic in the Philippines, he's a hero.
Once home to one of the biggest US naval facilities in the world, Subic is a haven for retired servicemen who seem thrilled that Trump is visiting the Philippines, and convinced the divisive tycoon can do no wrong.
"Trump, I back him big time," said Mike McCarthy, a former master chief with the US 7th Fleet, drinking in one of the American-themed bars that line Subic's main street, with names like "Alaska", "Crazy Horse" and "Rolling Stone".
"They won't allow him to govern, but he's smarter than them, always a step ahead," he said of opponents of Trump.
The US president arrives in the capital Manila on Sunday for a summit of Asian leaders, on the last leg of a tour that has taken him to Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.
"He's just doing things a different way, his tweeting, his strong words. But where has he made a wrong call yet?" said McCarthy.
A native of Florida who has lived in Subic for a decade, McCarthy said Trump's respect for veterans meant he's a big hit with them and among the military.
"If he asked me to come and meet him in Manila, I'd be there in a shot," he added.
Trump is set to meet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and will try to shore up relations strained by the Philippine leader's anti-US sentiment and his enthusiasm for better ties with Russia and China.
The Philippines has for decades been a key US defense ally and, although the naval base was closed in 1992, Subic has since received a regular flow of retirees and visits by US warships for repairs, resupply and exercises.
About 220,000 Americans, many of them military veterans, live in the Philippines. An additional 650,000 visit each year, according to US State Department figures.
Subic has maintained its American feel, with bars offering military discounts and restaurants serving anything from baby-back ribs, buffalo wings and steaks to burgers named "shotgun" and an omelette called "the sheriff".
It has tattoo parlors, liquor stores with signs advertising bourbon whiskey, and a Harley Davidson repair shop servicing the easy-rider motorcycles that have long been a fixture in the town of 100,000 people, about a three-hour drive north from Manila.
TATTOOS AND TANK TOPS
Veteran James Goodman, 51, has owned six bars during his 13 years in Subic. His latest venture, "Sit-n-Bull", has bar games, live sports and rock music that competes with the lively chatter of tattoo-clad patrons in tank tops.
The walls are adorned with vehicle license plates from Florida, Ohio, California and Nevada, next to a neon-lit USA sign in red, white and blue. A guitar hangs next to a wood carving of a native Indian and an American Football playoff schedule offering hot dog promotions.
"I'm very glad Donald Trump is coming here, I believe he and President Duterte will get along," said Goodman, from New Jersey.
"He's for the American people ... I look forward to his leadership, I look forward to his re-election.
"I'd love to meet Trump, I'd love to buy him a beer."
His business partner Ronn Oliver, 54, who runs a nearby restaurant of the same name, says veterans appreciate Trump and recognize his shrewdness.
"He knows what he's doing, he shocks, but he sets up his opponents, he plays them, he knows what reaction he's gonna get," said Oliver, a former serviceman and commercial fisherman from Seattle, Washington.
"He needs to build more support, so people can catch up with what he's doing. They've gotta give him a couple of years to get into it."
Christopher Lamb, 48, a fisherman who said he is from Florida, says he shook Trump's hand four decades ago. Wearing a baseball cap and white vest, he offers a few slurred words that show his pride in Trump's rise to the presidency.
"I met this man, he was nothing then, and now he's the most powerful man in the world," said Lamb.
Retiree Mike Allen, 66, from Ohio, has lived in Subic for a year and recognizes he might be the lone dissenter when it comes to Trump.
"The military guys here, they love him," he said, with a shake of the head.
"He says one thing one day and another thing the next. He's isolating us and he loves white supremacists. An American president can't be like that."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte faced pushback on Saturday at a regional summit over his efforts to weaken Southeast Asian resistance to Chinese expansionism in the contested South China Sea, diplomats said.
Duterte was due to release a chairman's statement at the end of the one-day Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) leaders meeting that ignored an international tribunal ruling rejecting China's sweeping claims to the strategically vital waterway.
Ahead of the summit, Duterte said the Philippines and other nations were helpless to stop Chinese artificial island building in areas they claimed, so there was no point discussing it at diplomatic events such as Saturday's summit.
But diplomats said other ASEAN nations, unhappy with intense Chinese lobbying of the Philippines, had sought to toughen up the chairman's statement and there were hot debates on the issue leading up to Saturday's summit.
"It can't be seen that ASEAN has totally given in to Chinese pressure," a Southeast Asian diplomat in Manila for the event told AFP.
China has been turning reefs and shoals in areas of the sea claimed by the Philippines and other nations into artificial islands, and installing military facilities there.
The United States has criticized the construction work, warning against militarization in the waterway where $5 trillion in annual trade passes.
ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also claim parts of the sea, but China insists it has sovereign rights over nearly all of it.
The Philippines, under previous president Benigno Aquino, had lobbied hard at ASEAN summits for the bloc to voice its strong opposition to the Chinese expansionism, and official statements at those events often reflected that.
Aquino also filed a case at a UN-backed tribunal asking it to reject China's claims and artificial island building.
The tribunal last year ruled largely in the Philippines' favor. But the ruling came after Duterte took power.
CHINA WIN
Duterte steadfastly refused to use the verdict to pressure China, instead pursuing warmer relations and billions of dollars' worth of trade and aid.
In a speech to open the summit, Duterte made no reference to the South China Sea.
Duterte's chairman's statement, which is meant to reflect the views of all ASEAN leaders, will voice concern but not mention the ruling nor China directly, according to excerpts of the latest draft on Saturday obtained by AFP.
China, through its ambassador to Manila, had this week been campaigning to weaken it further, delegates and diplomats told AFP.
"The lobbying is quite intense. They (China) want it further watered down," one diplomat told AFP.
China had wanted ASEAN to remove a reference to "respect for legal and diplomatic processes", and it was taken out of the South China Sea section of the latest draft of the chairman's statement.
Filipino diplomats said the phrase was important because "legal and diplomatic processes" encompassed the entire process of the filing of the case in the tribunal until its resolution.
Nevertheless, the new draft statement reintroduced a call for no further "land reclamation and militarization" of the sea.
Diplomats said the reinclusion of the reference to land reclamation and militarization meant that some ASEAN countries were not comfortable with "total acquiescence" to China.
"This has to be reflected in the statement," one diplomat, who did not want to be named, told AFP.
Another diplomat said Vietnam had insisted the references to the land reclamation and militarization be reintroduced.
The chairman's statement was due to be released on Saturday afternoon, after the ASEAN leaders finished their meetings and ahead of an informal dinner.
The summit was also being closely watched for how Duterte, who has shocked with curse-laden tirades against the United States and other critics of his deadly drug war, handles hosting his first major diplomatic event.
Duterte's drug war, which has claimed thousands of lives and led to warnings by rights groups about a possible crime against humanity, has been widely condemned in the West.
But he has enjoyed support from some of his Southeast Asian guests this week, including Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
President Duterte leads other heads of state in a group photo at the
opening ceremony of the 30th Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) Summit at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC)
in Pasay City on Saturday.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MANILA - Traditional funding institutions in the Philippines and ASEAN need to better understand technology start-ups, according to a businessman who helps small technology companies secure funding and grow.
Jojo Flores, co-founder and vice president of Plug and Play Technology Center based in Silicon Valley, said tech start-ups can potentially be as big as the Business Process Outsourcing industry but traditional funders don't understand start-ups' disruptive business models.
Flores said start-ups can potentially make a major disruption in 'blockchain technology,' which is used in Bitcoins. He said that blockchains can bring down the cost of sending remittances.
"The normal global financial cost for remittances for example ranges from 5 to 7 percent, and I think that it's about time that this disruption in terms of bringing down that cost can be addressed through blockchain technology," Flores said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
