As an expat I personally don’t care about the US Phils politics but also detect some anti American hatred that was never here before. I recently experienced that from some brainwashed nationalist millennial at NIAA while I was on the way home to the USA (I mistakenly bumped him while standing in line with my luggage cart and he came back at me screaming “I’m a Filipino!”), I think he was saying that because he was Filipino and I had no more right to be there than him, as if I were asserting power or something. It was just a mistake. That I think is what you are talking about. However, after that, several Filipinos actually apologized to me for that behavior, something I thought was unnecessary. What people forget is that the migration runs 2 ways, with vastly more Filipino immigrants in the US (4.5 million) than US expats in the Philippines (a few hundred k if that). What they forget is that a large percent of the 4.5 million in the US send remittances back to the Phils, providing valuable foreign exchange over the secondary currency here (something the China RMB cannot do). They forget that expats, rather than taking from society here actually spend their money here; we do not send Pesos back home. They may have forgotten that after the US bases here were invited to leave, the US retaliated...as they always do in diplomatic circles to even the playing field...held up H1B visas for Philippine professionals (nurses and doctors) for about 4 years and closed the Cebu consulate permanently, although now a small part time new office was recently reopened there. If the VFA goes through, Trump May say he doesn’t care but he is not known to be timid when supposed allies disrespect our country. There will be a strong diplomatic response. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out; my only problem with the VFA departing is that, for sure, the terrorist groups will be emboldened and will be able to move much more freely around the country when they are no longer being watched by our military intelligence via military satellites and other resources. The deterrence will be gone and that could be a real problem, we will have to see. If terrorists gain the upper hand, that is when we cut out and other non-Americans westerners may follow that same cue. That is also when the Department of State travel advisories will be issued for Cebu and Luzon and tourism will take a big slide (no ominous visa requirements required to crater the USA tourism). But we should wait and see what happens in the next 180 days.
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