Marlen V. Ronquillo
The Manila visit of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, including his brief meeting with President Duterte, was significant even with the supposed pivot to China and Russia of the DU30 administration. As they say, context is everything and Tillerson’s visit was in the context of the IS siege of Marawi City. IS is not merely knocking on the doorsteps. Its jihadists have been locked up in fierce battles with the police and the military and are a few hundred kilometers south of Manila. More than 700, according to foreign news accounts, people have died in the fighting and the US, the words of Tillerson, has been providing “guidance and training.”