MANILA, Philippines — The country's next foreign secretary will need to balance the views of president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the West Philippine Sea but also of his influential sister, political scientists said, noting the two may have differing positions on how to deal with China.
Marcos Jr. will be sworn into office on June 30 and has been announcing potential appointments over the past weeks. He has yet to name a new secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is currently led by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.
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In a discussion hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, political scientist Aries Arugay noted that president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s sister Sen. Imee Marcos chose "deliberately the Senate Foreign Relations Committee" to chair.
The committee has oversight over "all matters relating to the relations of the Philippines with other nations generally; diplomatic and consular service."
She previously floated the idea of having "joint border patrols," but did not elaborate. Meanwhile, Marcos Jr., in a briefing with select members of the media last week, said that the country’s rights would be asserted over the contested waters.
Arugay said that the new Marcos administration needs to find "delicate balance."
"This is where I think the critical role of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs would come in, to somehow manage, unlike before in the Duterte administration, he only has one person to manage, but this time around you might see different voices from the Marcos dynasty," he said.
Beijing is still asserting its rights over an area of the South China Sea that a 2016 tribunal ruled it does not have basis to claim. The Philippines has also been insisting on its sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone.
But the new Marcos administration is already seen as a period of continuity in terms of policies. Marcos Jr. himself has been suggesting that he would follow the lead of President Rodrigo Duterte in some areas.
Political scientist Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby said, however, that Marcos Jr. "might swing and change his stances depending on whatever would benefit whatever his objective would be at that certain point."
"What is crucial here as well is to remember the idea of the restoration of the family name and image, so in that sense we can expect some level of hedging but not in the same way that Duterte played this game," Misalucha-Willoughby said. — Kaycee Valmonte