Philippines' Marcos says discussed alliance in call with Trump

By Mikhail Flores and Karen Lema

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed their countries' alliance and their desire to strengthen that deep relationship in a phone call on Tuesday.

Marcos told reporters the call with Trump was "very friendly" and "very productive", and said he planned to see Trump as soon as he could.

"I think President-elect Trump was happy to hear from the Philippines," said Marcos, whose two-year-old administration has strengthened Manila's defence relationship with Washington as both countries face common security challenges in the region.

Marcos has sought to rebuild ties that frayed under his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who was openly hostile to the United States. Last year, he made the first official visit by a Philippine leader to the United States in more than 10 years.

Marcos is the son of the late strongman Ferdinand and former first lady Imelda Marcos, whom Washington helped flee into exile in Hawaii during the 1986 "people power" uprising. He said Trump had asked about his 95-year-old mother."He asked, 'How is Imelda?' I told him she's congratulating you," he said.

The Philippines, a former U.S. colony, is seen as central to Washington's efforts to counter China's increasingly assertive policies in the South China Sea and towards Taiwan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday visited the Philippine military's Western Command on the island of Palawan, next to the South China Sea, where he reiterated Washington's commitment to the Philippines under their 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty.

"Americans are profoundly committed to the defence of the Philippines," Austin said in a joint press conference with his Manila counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro.

"Our commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty is ironclad. Let me say again that the Mutual Defense Treaty applies to armed attacks on either of our own armed forces, aircraft, or public vessels, including our coastguards, anywhere in the South China Sea," Austin said.

The Philippines and China have been embroiled in repeated disputes the past few years over contested territory in the South China Sea that have turned the strategic waterway into a potential flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship-borne commerce, putting it at odds with its Southeast Asian neighbours.

In 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said China's claims had no legal basis, siding with the Philippines which brought the case. China rejects that ruling, but Washington, which supports it, says that decision is binding.