It's fascinating to watch the president of the Philippines declare yesterday that he foresees a joint development of oil and gas fields in the South China Sea with China happen "before the end of his term". In January 2023, weeks after he got elected on his predecessor Duterte's exact same platform of a balancing act between the US and China, Marcos went to Beijing on an official visit. There, USD 201.8 million worth of contracts were co-signed by Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank), bringing the total loans from China to the Philippines to over a billion USD. The joint statement was one of best developments that had happened in the bilateral relationship in decades : "On oil and gas cooperation, both sides agreed to bear in mind the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Philippines signed in 2018, and agreed to resume discussions on oil and gas development at an early date, building upon the outcomes of the previous talks, with a view of benefiting the two countries and their peoples." A couple of weeks later, the head of the Pentagone, Lloyd Austin, invited himself to Manila and all talks of cooperation with China were buried, to make way to a renewed American iron grip on the archipelago. So Marcos mentioning it again three and a half years later, now that his country is in a deep energy crisis because of its master's reckless actions in the Strait of Hormuz sounds a bit ironic. Marcos Jr., who likes to say that he should be judged on his actions and not on his ancestry (his father was deposed by the people of the Philippines because of his brutal and corrupt grip on the country, backed by the US), can not establish a fruitful relationship with China even if he was sincere about it. He is in the hand of Washington D.C., where his father's ill-gotten gains are still stashed, and the extra-territorial judicial arm of the US "justice system" could catch him anywhere he goes. Because of that, just three years into the job, he has made the Philippines wide-opened to the US Army, in proportions that were not attained before : re-occupation, enlargement and refurbishment of Clarke Airbase and Subic Bay naval base, free and unrestricted access to 10 other military bases, positioning of mid-range Typhon missiles, constant joint military drills with the US, Japan, Australia (and even with France), etc. Under Marcos Jr., the Philippines are becoming a de facto Asian member of NATO, and after all the recent Philippines Navy's provocations in the region, Marcos expects China to joint develop oil fields in the South China Sea, which will provide jet fuel to attack China... I wonder, will it work ?