The Philippines 2014-2015: Domestic Politics and Foreign Relations, A Critical Review

Regilme, Salvador Santino F Jr. 2016. “The Philippines 2014-2015: Domestic Politics and Foreign Relations, a Critical Review.” Asia Maior XXVI (2015): 133–56.

Posted: 25 Jul 2016 Last revised: 11 Jun 2018

See all articles by Salvador Santino Fulo Jr. Regilme

Salvador Santino Fulo Jr. Regilme

Leiden University - Faculty of Humanities

Carmina Untalan

Osaka University - Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP)

Date Written: 2016

Abstract

This article analyses some of the key issues in Philippine domestic politics and foreign policy during the years 2014 to 2015. The analysis is divided into two main parts. First, the article examines domestic politics from the lens of political corruption, President Aquino’s good governance programme, and electoral politics. Second, the article examines the principal patterns of power relations and key issues in regard to the Philippine government’s foreign policy and international diplomacy strategy — with a particular focus on bilateral relations with the United States, the rise of China and the territorial disputes, and regional economic integration in the context of the ASEAN. The main argument here is that the key patterns of domestic and foreign policies and strategies of the Philippine government under the Aquino administration reveal historically constituted shortcomings of the Philippine state in autonomously steering its own long-term development outcomes, primarily because of two factors: the internal struggles amongst various elite factions within the state-society nexus and the peripheral and US-centric roles that the country plays in the international system.

Keywords: Philippines, democracy, foreign policy, Southeast Asia, ASEAN, human rights

Suggested Citation

Regilme, Salvador Santino Fulo and Untalan, Carmina, The Philippines 2014-2015: Domestic Politics and Foreign Relations, A Critical Review (2016). Regilme, Salvador Santino F Jr. 2016. “The Philippines 2014-2015: Domestic Politics and Foreign Relations, a Critical Review.” Asia Maior XXVI (2015): 133–56., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2813240

Salvador Santino Fulo Regilme (Contact Author)

Leiden University - Faculty of Humanities ( email )

Netherlands

Carmina Untalan

Osaka University - Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) ( email )

1-31, Machikaneyama
Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043
Japan

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