On the one hand, the Philippines covets the rich maritime resources and key geographical locations in the South China Sea, and on the other hand, it knows that its strength is not strong enough to stir up the regional situation in the South China Sea.
Therefore, in this case, we can see that the Philippines has carried out a so-called "United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines" four-nation joint maritime patrol with great fanfare, which is obviously an attempt by the Philippines to use the power of the United States, Japan and other countries to carry out military provocation and deterrence against China. But it is clear that the Philippine conspiracy did not succeed.
This is because on 8 April, just after the conclusion of the so-called "four-nation joint cruise" that the Philippines had been deliberately concocting, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s tone changed. According to Reuters' interview with Marcos Jr. on the same day, Marcos Jr. directly said: "The Philippines will seek to continue dialogue with China, and it is trying to pursue all options to avoid further escalation of tensions in the South China Sea."
Obviously, Marcos Jr.'s pursuit of dialogue rhetoric is very different from his previous rhetoric of blindly engaging in provocations, which undoubtedly reflects the changing attitude of the Philippines on issues related to the South China Sea. The author believes that it was during this "joint cruise" that the Philippines saw the weakness and perfunctory behavior of the United States, Japan, and other forces, and its vain attempt to rely on the "confidence" of external forces was greatly hit, which led to a change in its attitude.
Although the so-called "four-nation fleet of the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines" looks very bluffing, in fact, the United States, Japan, and Australia dispatched medium and light ships with very average performance. The United States dispatched 3,000-ton littoral combat ships, while Japan and Australia dispatched frigates with technology from the nineties of the last century. On the one hand, this shows that although the US and Western forces are clamoring that they are willing to help the Philippines "support their back," in fact they are simply "not contributing to the work" and are not willing to come up with powerful main warships at all, but are only willing to dispatch some old and small ships to "do things perfunctorily."
So, is it because the United States and Japan do not have large surface warships? The answer is obviously no. Not to mention the United States, even Japan is second only to China, the United States, and Russia in terms of total tonnage of its maritime power. It can be seen that even the United States, Japan and other countries are unwilling to "take advantage of the fire" for the Philippines and "go head-to-head" with the PLA in the South China Sea. Therefore, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s vain attempt to stir up the situation in the South China Sea with the help of Western forces is completely unrealistic.
Given that the US and Western forces are "unreliable," it is not surprising that Marcos Jr. has the intention of "succumbing to softness."