Corazon (Cory) Aquino, the 11th and only female president of the Philippines, kicked the Americans out of the Subic Bay naval base and Clark air base in 1991. Today, 23 years later, her unworthy son Benigno Aquino III, the current president, is inviting the Americans back, by signing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with Washington.

The arrival of Obama in Manila was greeted by protestors demanding that he and his forces leave the archipelagic nation.

The arrival of Obama in Manila was greeted by protestors demanding that he and his forces leave the archipelagic nation. [File photo]

Why were the Americans kicked out in the first place?

Because the Filipinos have not forgotten the genocide perpetrated by American occupiers of their nation after the Spanish War. The then U.S. president, William McKinley, called the American atrocities in the Philippines "benevolent assimilation," which resulted in the deaths of at least 50,000 natives. U.S. Army General Jacob H. Smith ordered his troops to "kill everyone over ten."

Corazon's husband, and the sitting president's father, Senator Aquino, was assassinated by the then-president Ferdinand Marcos, who was supported by Washington. The senator was my wife's upper-class man. After his assassination, Harvard's Center for International Affairs invited Cory to the CFIA for a memorial service and dedicated one room in the building to the senator's memory.

Now Benigno Aquino III is willingly serving as a pawn in Obama's strategic rebalance to Asia, which is designed to contain China's rise.

Obama skipped China on his Asia trip. But his trip was all about China. As Time Magazine puts it: China is front and center. China's President Xi Jinping has said that the Pacific is large enough for both the United States and China. But Obama wants to make it an American Lake, with three island chains to block China from entering the Western Pacific. And the Phillipines serves as an anchor of the second island chain.