In an abrupt departure from his nation's longstanding military reliance on the U.S., Duterte said the Philippines would pursue "independent" foreign and military policies separate from US interests in the region, and ordered his defense secretary to seek weapons from suppliers in China and Russia to fight drug traffickers and insurgents. In another dramatic shift, the WSJ notes that the president also said Tuesday that the Philippines would stop patrolling the South China Sea alongside the U.S. Navy, to avoid upsetting Beijing. Instead, he said the nation's military would focus on combating drugs and terrorism, handing a major diplomatic victory of Beijing and a symbolic loss to the US and its support of non-Chinese terrotorial claims to the South China Sea.

The Philippines has had close ties with the U.S. for decades, most recently bolstering military cooperation through a 2014 pact. Both Washington and Manila have leveraged their alliance to counter China, whose increasingly assertive actions in support of its maritime claims have stoked unease in the region. But since coming to power on June 30, Mr. Duterte has indicated he wants to distance the Philippines from the U.S., a stance that threatens to alter the precarious strategic balance of power in the Asia-Pac region, especially when it comes to US interests. As we previously reported, in his initial anti-US shift, Duterte said on Monday that he wanted the U.S. military to leave Mindanao, the site of a strategic base set to host American forces.