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Friday, March 29, 2024

Philippine Rise

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Our newfound friend China named five geographical features within the Philippine Rise. China did this while waging a highly successful charm offensive on President Duterte. There is a word to describe this—duplicitous.

In spite of this, however, our government will be sitting down with Chinese officials in Manila to discuss joint exploration of our exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.

At what point will the government do the right thing and start calling a spade a spade? The one person in the country who is responsible for the current state of foreign policy directions is President Duterte himself. For better or for worse, he has singlehandedly brought a monumental shift in our foreign policy direction.

To think that this was one area he hardly talked about during the presidential campaign. What he discussed extensively were criminality, the stalled peace talks, federalism, constitutional amendments and corruption. He hardly uttered a word on foreign policy because this is not one area of his known expertise.

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But from the day he assumed office, he made known his dislike of the United States and anything western. At one point, he called the US lousy. He has also immediately drifted toward China and Russia. There were arms donations from both countries and lately, the President said that he wanted to buy more sophisticated weapon systems from both countries.

In the two visits of the President to China, he brought home pledges of investments and concessional loans in the billions of dollars and if realized, will keep our economy running for many years to come.

Some critics,å however, question the lack of transparency of these Chinese loans. It appears that the shift is not only in the military but also in law enforcement. For years, part of the police Senior Officers Executive Course was a trip to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US where the students undergo additional seminars and a visit to the FBI field office in Los Angeles.

There are reports however, that this year, there will be no US trip. Instead, the trip will be to China. Some students are grumbling because they were looking forward to the US trip and the 10-year tourist visa that goes with it. Now, they will be going to China where they will need translators and go through a system that is totally new to them.

This is not inherently bad because exposure to new police techniques might turn out to be better than the system that our police are so used to. I can perfectly understand however, why not all are looking forward to the China trip. After all, as the joke goes, every Filipino has a cousin in California.

The speech of the President to a gathering of Filipino Chinese businessmen last Monday, was very revealing. He made several pronouncements that should be crystal clear to one and all. He expressed his profound admiration of Chinese President Xi. He also gave us an idea of his philosophy on war. He said that he will never enter a war that he cannot win. This shows his healthy respect for the Chinese military and rightly so. The problem is that there is no one that I know of in the country who is advocating a war with China.

What some people are saying is that the country should assert our rights more forcefully in the diplomatic arena. Countries after all, must abide by some accepted norms of international conduct. Otherwise, these countries will lose face and credibility internationally. He also said that for the Philippines to solve its money problems, that China should make the country a province of China, like Fujian. The media said that he said this as a joke.

But even if it was said as a joke, the President as the leader of the country should not have said it. He emphasized however, during that speech that the Philippine rise is ours. We also said that the Scarborough shoal is ours but the Chinese are already there. We even named the area as West Philippine Sea but with no effect.

Naming the Benham Rise as Philippine Rise and not recognizing the Chinese names given to those five geographical features will also probably will not change anything. The President even endorsed the Chinese military build-up in some of the reclaimed atolls in the South China Sea as defensive in nature against the United States and not for us.

Why he had to say that, only he knows but it will not do our position with regard to Pagasa any good. He might also have overlooked the fact that we have a binding defense treaty with the US which the country is bound to honor. Thanks to the President also, the Chinese have completed their scientific study on the rise. We are now patrolling it to prevent others from entering the area. We cannot seem to grasp a major strategic aim of China which is oil. Oil to the Chinese is the single most important resource to be able to wage a protracted war. China’s current oil sources can be interdicted. That is why it must have oil sources that it can protect at whatever cost. I grant that President Duterte has the welfare of the country at heart. But whatever reasons he has for his infatuation with China, he must level with the people. This cannot just be because the US is lousy. The people are intelligent enough to understand his reasons if what he is doing is beneficial to the country and will even support him enthusiastically.

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