“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works.”

– John 14:10

BY sheer dint of history, China stands to be among the great benchmarks for just what kind of administration the incoming presidency of Presidentelect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr. is going to make. By the laws of contradiction, the quality of a thing is determined by the character of its principal aspect. Today the world teeters on the brink of a global confrontation threatening to explode from the crisis which has seen Russia ceaseless in its “special military operations” in Ukraine that began in late February. Mainly because of the decades-old pincer maneuvers by the United States and its NATO allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin had been pushed against the wall at long last from which his only choice was to strike first or let Russia be crushed for good. If, as President Rodrigo Duterte had repeatedly warned, the war in Ukraine spills over into the Philippines, then Bongbong’s first order of the day necessarily becomes one of containing the spillage. But, as the late wartime president Dr. Jose P. Laurel had lamented when faced with the superior force of the Japanese, “a small country is a small country and a weak people is a weak people.” How does the nascent Marcos presidency face up to the situation?

The question recalls the eulogy delivered by Bongbong during the memorial for his father in 1989. More youngish-looking than his politician mien nowadays, Bongbong declared what could be a virtual paraphrase of the biblical quote above: “As one chapter closes, another one opens. And I find myself facing the awesome responsibility of trying to fill my father’s shoes. I can only tell you at the risk of some presumption that as the aim of the Marcos family, personal, political and professional, we shall always continue to stand for what he stood for. We shall always stand for stability, development, justice, and unity and nationalism. You’re all with me in this and I bid you, pray for my success.”

Bidding one and all to pray for his success. To fill his father’s shoes. To stand for what he stood for.

The father president rose in a social setup deeply enslaved by the United States economically, politically, culturally. His rallying cry caught fire among Filipinos: “This nation shall be great again.” Indeed deeds matched rhetoric. Industries sprouted in all sectors: mining, textile, steel, infrastructure, automotive, a secretive space program. Agricultural programs assured affordable food even for the lowly folks.

Let economists discern why a highly developed Philippines is anathema to America. Suffice for this discussion that the moment the Philippines was in the sure flight to progress, America saw fit to clip the captain’s wings.

One crucial bone of contention was the fact that the moment Marcos became president in 1965, US bases which were scattered all over the country and which had not been paying any dues at all were charged rentals which were regularly negotiated for increases every five years or so.

Another taboo for the Philippines which America merely considered its enclave was alliance with US enemies in the Cold War. In 1975, President Ferdinand E. Marcos finally decided to strike up friendly relations with China. The Cold War that had raged after World War 2 between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies had not quite subsided and the Philippines, militarily tied to the US on account of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Military Bases Agreement (MBA), constantly shuddered from the potential of getting squeezed in between the contending powers. In what evidently was a move to free the country from the American gauntlet, President Marcos paid a visit to China as a concrete first step to establishing diplomatic relations with the rising Asian behemoth. Together with first lady Imelda Marcos, President Marcos had a one-hour audience with Chairman Mao Zedong, feted with a state dinner by Premier Zhou Enlai and was toured to historic spots by Deng Xiaoping.

Indeed, the move appeared to have propped the Philippine position in its dealings with nations of the world, but particularly with the ever exploitative, oppressive and duplicitous foreign relations policies of the United States.

In 1985, another increase on rentals on US bases was on schedule. It never took place. A snap presidential election was maneuvered by the United States upon Marcos ostensibly to pacify the unceasing agitation by Corazon Aquino for his ouster but actually as a sly scheme to do away with Marcos and thus with the rentals on US bases which were running into millions of dollars. But with Marcos winning the elections after all, the US played its last remaining card: expose the Marcos victory as a grand cheat which validated the EDSA “people power revolt,” and that propelled Cory to the presidency.

We all know the grief and agony wrought upon the family by the ouster of the senior Marcos. The Americans kidnapped him and the family and brought them to Hawaii for exile, never to be allowed to return to the Philippines if not on his death — but as much as the Aquino yellow power could help it, never to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani where the Marcos family must insist he rightfully belonged. And so from the time of his death in September 1989, the Marcos remains were kept in a refrigerated state until finally with the blessing of the Duterte administration, he was given the hero’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in November 2016.

For the succeeding three decades and three years since then, the Marcos “only begotten son” has had to carry the cross for redeeming his father’s legacy, bearing the burden through ups and downs, punctuated by a term-long struggle to regain a lost vice presidency, and losing it still, made that one great gigantic stride to plant the cross in its destined pinnacle. Where is that pinnacle? As clearly depicted in the Ukraine crisis, the historical main antagonist is America with NATO as its cohort and Russia having acted in self-defense against the duo’s decades-old sly circling maneuver. Whether or not the Ukraine war will, as President Duterte had warned, spill over into the Philippines is conditioned upon whether or not China will allow it.

The father Marcos had once upon a time dared to break away from the apron strings of America and began a tradition of ever cementing mutually friendly and beneficial relations with China. The son could, as he swore in his father’s memorial, fill his father’s shoes and stand by what the father began in 1975 — and this time carry it on for good.