US eyes renewed ties with new admin on rights, reg’l priorities

MANILA – The United States government said it would renew its “special partnership” with the Philippines and work with the next administration on human rights and regional priorities once a new president has been proclaimed.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday said the US looks forward to working with the new leader to strengthen the alliance between the two nations.

“We’re monitoring the election results, and we look forward to renewing our special partnership and to working with the next administration on key human rights and regional priorities,” he said.

Price expects that Manila and Washington D.C. would continue to collaborate closely “to advance a free and open, connected, prosperous, secure, and resilient Indo-Pacific region.”

“We’ll also continue, as I said before, to promote respect for human rights and the rule of law, which is fundamental to US relations with the Philippines and in other bilateral contexts as well,” he said.

Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. continues to lead with a wide margin over his nearest rival Vice President Leni Robredo in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) partial and unofficial tally.

Based on its transparency server, Marcos has so far garnered over 31 million votes while Robredo got 14.8 million from the 98.25 percent election returns processed.

Price describes the casting and counting of votes “to have been conducted in line with international standards and without significant incident,” but said the US would wait for the formal proclamation when asked for further comments about Marcos as the next president.

“Again, the counting is still underway. It is not for us to declare a winner. We’ll wait for the Philippines election authorities to do that,” he said.

“We look forward to working with the president-elect on the shared values and the shared interests that have united our countries across generations,” he added.