The Philippines, so named because they were a Spanish colony, was subsequently occupied by the USA. The USA designed a military occupation apparatus to maintain their dominance of the islands that was then repatriated to the USA in the form of the state police system (PA State Police being the first). Since then, The Philippines has been deeply enmeshed in Western geopolitics through economic dominance.

What China is doing is not bullying and The Philippines knows that. What China is doing is pushing back against the West’s bullying in the Pacific and The Philippines is in a long transition away from the North Atlantic’s sphere of influence into China’s sphere of influence. De-escalation is absolutely the right response because the only place escalation goes is the return of Western hot conflict to the region and the continued domination of the region by the Western bullies.

Tl;Dr: Don’t talk about bullies when you don’t know the history of bullying over the last 5 centuries