Manila

In the latest confirmation that President Rodrigo Duterte's threat to diversify the country's military ties away from the United States and toward China and Russia was not hollow, AP reports that three Russian navy ships arrived in the Philippines on Friday and two others are coming, to deliver donated military equipment in the country's third naval visit under Duterte, who as discussed previously, has launched a historic pivot in the country's geopolitical posture away from the US and toward regional Superpowers.

Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Stratgaic Culture Foundation,

In a new global environment, centered on a multipolar world order, the Philippines offers a unique perspective for understanding the changes occurring in international relations.

More than a year after a mysterious group of hackers infiltrated the SWIFT system for interbank payments and stole $100 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh’s custody account at the New York Fed, Filipino authorities have been unable to recover $81 million that seemingly disappeared into the Manila air.

If China begins to reclaim and militarize Scarborough Shoal, says Philippines President Benigno S. Aquino III, America must fight. Should we back down, says Aquino, the United States will lose “its moral ascendancy, and also the confidence of one of its allies.”

And what is Scarborough Shoal? A cluster of rocks and reefs, 123 miles west of Subic Bay, that sits astride the passageway out of the South China Sea into the Pacific, and is well within Manila’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone.