To keep its EDCA bases, will the US take on Sara?

THE United States, its allies Japan, Australia and especially Taiwan, and its supporters in the Philippines are cheering the reversal of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s long-avowed take-no-sides stance toward rival superpowers America and China.

With nine bases of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to be made available to US and perhaps allied forces, the Philippines is no longer "a friend to all and an enemy to none," as Marcos often said before he granted Washington's bases request during the visit of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in early February.