© 2016 EMC Working Paper*
Ph.D. in Development Studies Program
College of Public Affairs and Development
University of the Philippines
Los Banos, Laguna
ABSTRACT
As the President Rodrigo R. Duterte administration continues to chart its foreign policy, this paper studies the impact of United States (U.S.) foreign policy and interest in the Republic of the Philippines (R.P.) that shaped the RP-US relations for more than seven decades following the declaration of Philippine independence on July 4, 1946. Notwithstandingthe express declaration of an independent foreign policy in the Philippine Constitution, it finds a modest but trivial pass through from the path dependence loaded the Philippine
foreign policy with the U.S. from the time of all the postcolonial leaders to the presidency of Benigno Simeon C. Aquino, which was most recently challenged by the Duterte presidency.
Not following, however, the expected path of risk-free diplomacy---by articulating some post-colonialism and post-structuralism stance---in the R.P.-U.S. relations’ context concluding that countries respond differently to these shocks that eventually favored his using of U.S.' fueled “historical injustice” to the Filipino people in Duterte’s “high octane power politics.”
“Three-O” for purposes of this research, refers to:
- Oil Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC),
- Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), and
- Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Finally, I explore the determinants of foreign policy direction and find strong evidence for the role of “Three-O diplomacy,” but also for other factors, such as rationalization of openness to attaining lasting peace,inclusive---socio-economic growth, and sustainable development
by building new alliances with the non-traditional allies based on the Filipino first foreign
policy, and the credibility of thePhilippine fiscal and monetary policy to position leadership
in the ASEAN.
Keywords: Dependency, diplomacy, “high octane power politics,” ‘historical injustice,”
independent foreign policy, and “Three-O” Diplomacy.
*The author, Esnaen M.Catong is an Associate Professor and former Dean of the College of Social Sciences at WMSUZamboanga City; and has completed all the academic requirements for Ph.D. in History (Cognate in Political Science) at UPDiliman; and he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Development Studies (Cognates in Sociology and Economics) at UP-Los Banos.
