Tell you what: refurbish Subic Bay and Clark AFB, make them suitable for the latest US military hardware (stealth aircraft support, etc), then we'll see if we can work out an agreement. Of course, if china DOES finally decide to "reclaim" its lost Pacific empire that its ancestors threw away, I'm fairly sure you'll get plenty of friendly military attention coming to your aid. Current suggestion: talk better mutual defense treaties with nearby nations like Singapore, Thailand, Australia and Japan. Build up an industrial and economic base that attracts more American investments (something more than tourism and the sex trade.) I'm sure there's something of value the Philippines can figure is appealing to other nations.

Never heard of any joint exercises with commonwealth nations,(malaysia, singapore, australia)Maybe its because these countries thinks the Philippines is not worth having a mutual defence pact. The ASEAN pact also seems rather weak to counter the chinese military expansion, Philipines lose a lot for not extending the lease on Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base. And US is rather reluctant to interfere with the illegal Chinese presence here in the Philippines.

"And US is rather reluctant to interfere with the illegal Chinese presence here in the Philippines." That sounds more of an internal affair that Philippine security, intelligence, and immigration services should be handling. I do notice, however, that there has beensome, albeit limited, US assistance against some of the extremist groups. Of course, I think that may only be because American interests might be at stake (personnel). It's all about selling yourself: make other nations (other than china) see that your country has something worthwhile to offer them. Then cooperation begins.

If the US did not help The Philippines ward the Chinese incursion into its territory, then its role as an international policeman would be greatly tarnished. The philippine/US relations turned for the worse because of the withdrawal of the Philippine contingent in Iraq,and may take sometime to restore better relations. Even so, at least they could give us some military hardware for the decades of friendly relations (subic and clark bases), its not asking much to have old equipment, their M113 APCs from what i've read in the net, has not been in use in favor of the newer stryker, their F5 may be old but to us it would still be a good secondary fighter, old M16A2 will also be warmly received. Just about anything old, we greatly appreciate it,

Trust me if Chinese are rumbling through Manila, look to your right, you will see an American with an M-16 fighting to the death beside you.