The first time I sailed into Manila Bay, I was a young ensign on a U.S. Navy destroyer. It was in the late 1970s. I felt I was part of an unbroken line of U.S. sailors going back to 1898, when U.S. Adm. George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in that natural harbor at the start of the Spanish-American War.
The United States took the place of Spain as a colonizing power, and the Filipinos fought a long insurgent struggle for independence until World War II. After the war, thankfully, the U.S. granted independence, but the two nations have maintained very close political, military and person-to-person ties.
Now, thanks to the country's brash president, Rodrigo Duterte, that alliance is facing its toughest test in decades. The U.S. needs to act quickly or face letting the Philippines drift closer to China. That would be bad for America and worse for the Filipinos.