MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos met with a top U.S. official in Manila on Thursday, underscoring efforts to preserve an alliance strained by incumbent leader Rodrigo Duterte’s animosity toward Washington and his embrace of Beijing. The Philippines is a fulcrum of the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. Though the Southeast Asian country has a defence treaty with the United States, their ties were left shaken by Duterte’s recent overtures to China. Analysts also see Marcos as more favourable to Beijing than Washington, but last month he said …