Supporters wait for their respective candidates during the filing of Certificates of Candidacy outside the Manila Hotel on October 8, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — "Pro-China" has lost its sheen nearly nine years since then President Rodrigo Duterte announced the Philippines' "separation" from the United States, its treaty ally and former colonizer.

"I've realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world — China, Philippines and Russia," Duterte said in 2016 during a state visit to Beijing.

The announcement was followed by years of official praise for China's development pledges and its assistance in infrastructure, to the military during the 2017 Marawi Siege, and on pandemic response.

Duterte’s China Deals, Dissected

It came, too, with an official playing down of the 2016 ruling on the Philippine case against China's sweeping claim over the South China Sea and of the country's ability to press the arbitral victory and its rights. 

It would be better, the government said at the time, to focus on cooperation with China on other matters instead of butting heads on an issue that would take longer than a presidential term to resolve.

Duterte calls Philippine arbitral victory vs China a piece of 'paper' that led to nothing

The change in administration from Duterte to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has also seen a sea change in Philippine policy towards China, which the President pointed out in a pitch for the senatorial candidates of the Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas.

None on his slate are cheerleaders for China, Marcos Jr. said, with allies at the House pushing the point further.

"They made excuses for Chinese aggression and questioned our own legal victory in The Hague. Why should we allow them back into power?” House Assistant Majority Leader Jil Bongalon of Ako Bicol party-list said as he warned against electing supposedly "Pro-China" candidates.

“They welcomed China’s interference, they pushed for lopsided projects, and they even threatened our institutions when it suited them,” he also said.

'THE WEST PHILIPPINE SEA IS REAL'

"You know, people are bashing me that I am pro-China," Sagip Party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, a candidate for senator, said in a tense exchange with Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela this week.

Marcoleta was responding to backlash to his assertion the West Philippine Sea "does not exist" because it is not on international maps or registered with the International Hydrographic Organization.

Confronted by Marcoleta, Tarriela retorts: 'Why would I defend you when you're calling me g*go?'

Tarriela was in the hot seat for social media posts claiming he called Marcoleta a traitor — he said he did not but also read into the record that he believes the congressman's statement about the West Philippine Sea was a disservice and an embarrassment.

Marcoleta has since explained that he only meant the name should be registered with the IHO, on international maps, and on Google, and that the sea belongs to the Philippines, whatever its name may be.

Sens. Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joel Villanueva, Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher "Bong" Go strike a pose wearing a shirt with the West Philippine Sea and a Philippine flag design at a FIBA basketball game against China in September 2023. Handout from Sen. Joel Villanueva

'RED FLAGS'

But what is a Pro-China candidate and how can voters spot them?

For democratic socialist party Akbayan, which wants lessons on the West Philippine Sea included in school curricula, denying the sea's existence is one sign.

"It should cause extreme worry and concern if candidates cannot categorically condemn the actions of China in the WPS and if such candidates' position align with the previous Duterte admin's pro-China policies," Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña told ABS-CBN News in an online exchange.

Candidates should also take a firm stand on the 2016 arbitral ruling, he said. "Napakalinaw naman ng internationally recognized decision na ito (That internationally recognized decision is very clear)."

For national democratic coalition Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), it would be candidates who “parrot the Dutertespeak”, adding voters should be wary of those “who suddenly appear critical of Chinese incursion in the WPS but have no record of speaking up on this issue in the past.”

Both Akbayan and Bayan have protested Chinese presence in the West Philippine Sea during the Duterte and Marcos Jr. administrations.

But beyond taking positions that favor Beijing, frequent travel to China and extensive business dealings there are potential red flags, according to Niva Yau, a non-resident fellow of the Washington DC-based Atlantic Council think tank. 

Yau, who has done research on China's United Front Work, said economic interests present potential leverage for China.

"Even though it might not be in use right now, it could be something that comes to be used later on," Yau told ABS-CBN News in an online exchange.

She also cautioned against candidates and officials "who have said things about reforms and improvements of governance structures that hint towards centralization of control and authoritarianism...or limiting people's room to participate in politics and journalism and so on."

Yau looked into 795 government training programs offered by China to Global South countries, which she said showed a "concerted effort to promote authoritarian governance across the developing world" as an alternative to "Western" democracies.

These Western democracies, including the United States, also offer their own training programs and development assistance, as well as military and economic aid.

Youth activists staged a protest at the Chinese consulate in Makati City on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 calling on China to stop encroaching on Philippine waters. Michael Joe Delizo, ABS-CBN News 

FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

Bayan has taken the position, however, that there should be no foreign interference in the Philippines, whether from China or from the US, a stance that has made it prone to being accused of "taking the bait and...following China’s talking points."

Like other groups, Bayan wants China out of the West Philippine Sea and the issue brought to international fora like the United Nations. It also wants 'demilitarization' of the tense waters, saying foreign warships and coast guard vessels in Philippine waters only worsen the situation and make conflict more likely.

"It's fake patriotism if candidates are suddenly eager to go to war just to get votes, but are silent when actual foreign troops are deployed in our country," Bayan secretary-general Mong Palatino said in an online exchange.

He said justifying the presence of foreign troops and weapons in the Philippines is a "revival of a colonial mindset" that keeps the Philippines from having an independent foreign policy.

"We should have a consensus to reject all candidates who actively promote the interest of foreign powers," he said.

Fishers group PAMALAKAYA, along with Pilipinong Nagkakaisa Para sa Soberanya (P1NAS) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, hold a protest action outside the Chinese Consulate in Makati on April 9, 2024, to condemn China’s repeated harassment of Filipino fisherfolk and Philippine supply missions in the West Philippine Sea. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

Speaking still on Chinese influence efforts, Yau said that these are worrisome not because "it is helping China gets what it wants" but because they take away the informed decision-making process that should include a country's citizens.

"Governments and nation states are there to serve their own people," she said.

"So when China or any other foreign power extends this level of covert influence and engagement methods, like elite capture, it is taking away people's ability to make their own choices."

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