(L-R) Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Australia), Prime Minister Narendra Modi (India), President Joe Biden (United States), Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (Japan). Photo: businessinsider.in t is high time the Philippines packs its bags and bids "adieu" to its timid friends from ASEAN and says "hello" to the Quad. For years this country has spent an inordinate amount of time, money, and resources for an association with little to show the world other than its awkward cross-armed handshake. Now, amid a global pandemic, everyone will at least be spared seeing that utterly silly ritual on TV or plastered across the front pages of newspapers around the region. With Cambodia becoming a stand-in for China, ASEAN's already mediocre objectives are being further diluted and supplanted with Beijing's. And Cambodia is by no means the only problem; many other ASEAN countries now have their economic wellbeing wrapped around Beijing's little finger. They have to play by Beijing's rules or suffer the consequences. Given that the Philippines is—for all intents and purposes—still a democracy, it will be well served to cast its lot with the Quad. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the United States, Australia, Japan, and India has become the vanguard holding back China's hegemonic ambitions in the Western Pacific. Given the Philippines' win in the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal against China and its strategic location in the South China Sea, the Quad will be more than happy to have it on its side. Opening the country's air and naval bases to quad members will create a very significant "headache" for Chinese military planners. The Philippines is located just outside the area known as "the first island chain." To China's military planners, the first island chain must always remain under PLA (People's Liberation Army) control to guarantee the Chinese mainland's security. Maybe just the threat of the country siding with the Quad might make China hand Scarborough Shoal back to the Philippines. As tempting as that sounds, it is in the long-term interest of the region that China realizes that many of its neighbors will not be cowered into submission. The bottom line is the Philippines could turn into a vassal state of China if some Filipino leaders have their way. Or the country can stand up to China the way many democratic and freedom-loving countries are starting to. As a proud and independent people, Filipinos it seems, are more Quad than ASEAN in character. Published 3/17/2021