Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte wanted all Filipinos to sacrifice and support his shift to independent foreign policy for the Philippines to expand equal ties with superpowers like the United States, China, and Russia, a spokesperson said.

“It may be difficult and it may be challenging (to have ties with the US, China, and Russia), but definitely the President sees it as something that will actually add to our well-being and prosperity as a nation,” said presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella.

“Given the fear, he was asking, would the Filipinos believe enough in the nation to set a course, to set an independent course in spite of economic difficulties if and when it should happen,” Abella explained the basis of Duterte’s call.

“He’s not saying it will (happen) but he said if and when it should happen, would we be willing enough? Would we be patriotic enough to stand behind the Philippines in declaring an independent foreign policy?” Abella said.

Earlier, when he talked about the importance of having an independent foreign policy, Duterte said, “I’m going to ask you to sacrifice a little bit.”

At the same time, he promised, “By next year (2017), I would have entered alliances with so many countries. I will have an alliance in the military, trade and commerce with China. I have talked to (Prime Minister Dmitry) Medvedev of Russia and we agreed that I will go there and we’ll talk about what, how they can help us here.”

Talking about his future visit to China and Russia, Duterte said he will “open all doors of investment”.

During an official visit in Vietnam, Duterte told a group of overseas Filipino workers that the joint US-Philippine war games scheduled in late October will be the last time to be undertaken by both countries, adding that “China does not want” this kind of exercises in the South China Sea.

“I will serve notice to you now that this will be the last military exercise (in the Philippines),” said Duterte, but senior officials downplayed Duterte’s statement — he allegedly referred to the October war-games as the final joint exercises in 2016.

Duterte also said he will only honour the US-Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty signed in 1951 — a hint that he would call for a review of the 1998 US-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) which allowed large-scale war games. The Philippine Senate ratified it in 1999.

The VFA was an enabling agreement because US-Philippine joint war games ended after the Philippine senate rejected in 1991 the US-proposed 10-year extension of the now defunct US-Philippine Military Bases Agreement, the basis of the presence of two large US overseas war facilities in central Luzon since 1898, at the end of Spanish colonial era.

Duterte has not yet commented on the US-Philippines Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) which allowed increased US troops and access to eight Philippine bases. In 2014, the US and Philippine defence secretaries signed the EDCA which indicated a Senate ratification was not needed for its implementation.