The Chinese started it all, building the ancient Great Wall of China to keep out its enemies. US President Donald Trump borrowed the idea and is bent on building a wall along the US-Mexican border to keep out illegal aliens.
Instead of building bridges to connect culture and promote trade with other countries, building a wall to insulate itself from perceived perils seem to have become the norm The destruction of the iconic Twin Towers of the World Trade Center by Al Qaeda, the Taliban threat and more recently the scourge of ISIS have fanned the flame of xenophobia.
Comes now the report from Budapest that Hungary will build a second border fence to ward off migrants and refugees from civil war-stricken Syria who used Serbia and Hungary as a transit point to settle in Western Europe. Recall that hundreds of thousands of refugees trekked across Eastern Europe. Hungary had to round them up in camps and the Budapest railroad stations before allowing them to leave by train or go on foot to cross the border to Vienna, Austria. The preferred destinations for these migrants are Germany and France, two countries willing to accept refugees.
Good fences make good neighbors, so goes the old saying. The fear of terrorists who embedded themselves with migrants is feeding the fear of foreign newcomers. Building walls along a country’s delineated territory. it can be said, is bordering on paranoia. Or delusion in the case of Trump, who reiterated his plan to build a wall along its southern border. Mexico has made known that if Trump pushes through with his wall, the Mexican government would slap a higher tariff on US products worth billions of dollars.. It may not be an armed confrontation but it would be a trade war between two close countries who used to be close. Mexico still believes a sizable portion of its territory was seized by the Americans. This was highlighted by the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
While other countries are protective of their borders, not so the Philippines. Our government wants to host everything from the Miss Universe beauty pageant to an invasion from neighboring China. To wit: The Philippine Coast Guard will hold a joint naval exercise with its Chinese counterparts. Isn’t that giving away to the Chinese the capability of our coast guard, which is supposed to protect our territorial waters from Chinese incursion in the West Philippine Sea?
But then, there’s really nothing to give away. The whole world knows we don’t have a navy to speak of aside from a few hand-me-down vessels from the US. We might as well be the one to learn about the Chinese coast guard capability.
Political fences
In the House of Representatives and the Senate, political fences are up. The supermajority in the House through Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez made known it will not allow fence sitters. Under threat of losing their plum positions in committee chairmanships, the political turncoats voted to railroad the restoration of the death penalty certified by President Duterte as a priority measure. But of course, the pro-death penalty legislators protected their rear ends by excluding plunder in the list of capital crimes.
In the Senate, Duterte’s henchmen initiated a revamp of the key committee chairmanships. Senator Franklin Drilon was deposed as Senate Pro Tempore leader, The Senate shakeup, if at all, only made Liberal Party president Senator Francis Pangilinan, LP Senators Paulo Bam Aquino, Riza Hontiveros, and Antonio Trillanes IV to close ranks. Senator Leila de Lima, under detention for alleged graft in connection with drug money from narco traffickers in the New Bilibid Prison, had no recourse but to stick with her LP colleagues.
While the House was able to ram the restoration of the death penalty, it may not be that easy to pass in the Senate. A nose count of the senators indicate a close 12-12 vote but the Palace with its awesome power of the purse could swing the outcome to Digong’s way . Forget about conscience vote. That did not happen in the House. It’s all about money and power which politicians need to get reelected and perpetuate themselves and their dynasty in power.
Climate change accord
President Duterte to his credit signed the Paris Agreement to deal with global climate change. He sent to the Senate for ratification the accord which details the country’s commitment for accession and action of compliance. Climate change has been a telling force in the recent spate of typhoons like Yolanda which triggered landslides and flooding due to carbon emission and the denudation of forests.
The Philippines pledged in Paris to cut emissions by 70 percent. This is a tall order but necessary to keep casualties down in a country visited by typhoons almost the whole year round. Typhoon Yolanda was the strongest cyclone ever recorded in history. Its devastation of Leyte and other parts of Eastern Visayas took more than 6,000 lives and survivors are still suffering from destroyed homes and agricultural crops laid to waste. After three years, government efforts to rebuild houses and schools are still on -going with some survivors still living in tents and make-shift shelters.