Palace explains Filipinos’ high distrust for China and Russia

The Philippine government is moving closer to China and Russia but Filipinos’ distrust for Beijing and Moscow remain high.

Filipinos’ high distrust for China and Russia, two countries with which President Duterte is seeking closer ties, is not surprising at this point, Malacañang said on Tuesday.

“That’s par for the course,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said of the latest Pulse Asia survey showing that 63 percent distrusted China, and 56 percent distrusted Russia.

Abella said that for so long, people have been taught to think badly of these two countries

“After all these years, we’ve been programmed to think these are the enemies,” he told reporters.

But Mr. Duterte is taking a different tack.

“The President is breaking free, he’s a disruptor,” he said.

Since coming into office, Mr. Duterte has sought to ease tensions with Beijing even as he distanced himself from the country’s traditional ally the United States.

With ties warming between the Philippines and China, Beijing has offered millions in deals and grants to Manila. Mr. Duterte has also deferred bringing up with China the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling that had invalidated its claim to nearly the whole of the South China Sea.

Mr. Duterte is also moving closer to Russia, and has apparently hit it off with its President Vladimir Putin.

He has boarded two Russian warships that made a port call in Manila this year.