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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Defending our territorial integrity

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One of the most important duties of the President is safeguarding the territorial integrity of the country. On this, he must not only be resolute but also demonstrative.

During the last presidential elections, President Rodrigo Duterte was the only one who clearly had a different vision in the area of fighting crime, corruption, federalism and the peace process with the different militant factions.

In the area of foreign affairs, however, he only had this to say about the West Philippine Sea dispute. He will ski to the Scarborough Shoal and plant the Philippine flag. Otherwise, he basically kept quiet on the other issues.

He did not say anything about what he will do with our relationship with our long-standing allies, the United States, Japan and the European Union, three of our biggest trading partners. He kept most of his ideas and beliefs on defense and foreign relations close to his chest. It is only now that he is president that the nation is beginning to see what his positions are.

Rightly so, it is beginning to rile not only our traditional allies but also many of our nation’s establishments. Eight months into his presidency, except on his war on drugs of which he has personally taken charge, President Duterte has more or less left the running of most of the government bureaucracy (except perhaps foreign affairs and defense) to his department heads.

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Mr. Duterte was mayor of a big city for over two decades. Many expected that he would focus his energies on domestic issues and depend on senior government officials with more experience on defense and foreign affairs. This has not happened. He has now directly taken over the conduct of foreign affairs, a field in which he has very little experience.

Consider the following: He has lambasted both the pope and former US President Obama, threatened to pull the country out of the United Nations, told the European Union to mind its own business and lectured them on their history, and praised Vladimir Putin as his hero, saying that if China and Russia would form another world order, the Philippines would join. In a recent statement reported by the media, he also said that China has word of honor, something that the United States does not have. He also blames the US for not stopping China when the Chinese began building islands in the South China Sea.

Such is his scorn that if the US were not a treaty ally and trusted by the vast majority of Filipinos, he probably would have signed a treaty of friendship and defense with China.

For the moment, he seems to be getting a lot from China. Billions of dollars have been promised. The President also called on China to help in the development of Mindanao and the building of bridges across the Pasig River. But at what cost?

Some would say that the president is being naïve. China, is being so generous not because of altruism but because of geopolitics. He seems to have made up his mind however, that China is a big brother and that what he is doing is paying dividends. He even joked that China would like to make the country a province.

At the rate the President is allowing the Chinese into the country, it might still become true. Right now, however, the President is on a roll. Everything seems to be going his way but it would be prudent on his part to take a step back, “go to the balcony” and study the whole situation before going any further. The stakes for the country and for the region are so great that the President will have to carefully weigh the consequences of what he is doing. Yes, China is the predominant country in the region and we should try to maintain friendly relations and also try to maximize trade with the country. We should, however, be mindful of protecting our national interests and without having to give up our traditional allies. It does not have to be one or the other.

Yes, we cannot win a war with China but it does not mean we have to acquiesce to everything that China is doing. The President seems to be trying too hard not to say or do anything that might offend China. Defending our interests robustly does not mean that we want to go to war that we will lose anyway. It simply means that we are willing to defend the integrity of our territory and the President can do no less.

Right now, we do not know the actual game plan of the president. He and his Cabinet secretaries do not seem to be of one voice. But the people have the right to know where all these are going. After all, it will be the people and not the President alone who will bear the brunt of what will happen as a result of his foreign policy adventures.

Given that what he is doing is drastic, it stands to reason that he should harness the collective wisdom of the people to craft a foreign and defense policy foreign that is consistent with what the people want. Maybe part of the problem is the lack of a strategic national plan or a blueprint to follow so that no president can easily change it based on his own personal experiences and beliefs.

What will happen to us as a country is too important for one single official to be deciding even if that official is a popular president.

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