If you still believe that President Rodrigo Duterte is anti-American, you’ve probably never heard of Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez. Or if you do know Babe, then you didn’t know that last week, Romualdez, a columnist in another paper and a longtime ally of the Americans in the Philippines, was offered by Duterte the ambassadorship to Washington.
Sources in Malacañang have confirmed to me that Duterte met with Romualdez for an hour last Thursday, during which the offer was made. Apparently, Duterte has decided that he wants to send a clear signal that he is not against the Americans, despite the intensifying campaign to drive a wedge between the Philippine president and Washington in international media and among local anti-Digong politicians.
Romualdez has always been close to the diplomats in the US Embassy in Manila and is particularly tight with the current ambassador, Philip Goldberg. Tonight, in fact, Romualdez and the Manila Overseas Press Club, of which Babe is an influential member, are hosting a testimonial dinner for the American envoy.
I’ve been told that Romualdez did not say yes to Duterte’s offer but has instead offered to help mend fences with the Americans in an unofficial capacity. Babe, as far as I know, has never worked in government, even if his brother, the late and very much admired Dr. Alberto “Quasi” Romualdez, once served as Joseph Estrada’s health secretary.
But what about Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., the diplomatic Mr. Fix-It of various administrations, whose last great accomplishment was running the Apec summit in Manila last year and who was reported to have been given the Washington post by Duterte? Apparently, the president wants to keep Jun Paynor at the home office, to keep doing the job he knows best (that of running international events in Manila); while Digong knows Paynor will do a good job in Washington, he needs Romualdez more for that post right now.
If Babe goes to Washington, it will be another of those inspired appointments that Duterte is known for, for the most part. I know Ambassador Goldberg, who has had famous run-ins with Digong, will certainly heave a sigh of relief.
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It’s also silly to insist that Duterte intends to barter away the national patrimony for Chinese aid. After all, what Duterte has been saying all this time is that the arbitral ruling that the Philippines won this year from the court in The Hague is not ever going to be set aside, regardless of how much he wants to befriend our big new superpower neighbor to the northwest.
“I will not bargain anywhere [because] we will continue to insist [on what] is ours,” Duterte told a news conference in Davao City, before he left for Brunei over the weekend. “I cannot give what is not mine and [that] which I am not empowered to do by any stretch of imagination.”
As far as China is concerned, what Duterte does want is more trade and assistance, especially because he thinks the Chinese will be more amenable to give now that we have a favorable ruling. And what he doesn’t want is to engage in a shooting war with China over the disputed territories because, according to the president, this is a fight that we simply cannot win.
Duterte understands that it will take many years before the dispute with China is resolved, just like similar conflicts with the Chinese took much time (and sometimes very bloody wars) to resolve. This was the lesson that Duterte must have learned in the border disputes that the Chinese had in the past with both the Russians and the Vietnamese.
Ultimately, Russia and Vietnam resolved their territorial problems with China by negotiations, after first going to war with the Chinese over them. But it took a lot of time and a lot of talking before those borders were fixed for good.
Of course, Duterte’s problem is that some hawkish Filipinos want their government to “enforce” the favorable ruling, especially because they sincerely believe that the US has got our back. But the basis for this belief is tenuous, at best, simply because Washington and Manila have always viewed the dispute from different angles.
The Philippines has always considered the dispute an issue of territorial integrity which it feels that American military muscle must resolve in our favor. The US, on the other hand, is only in the South China Sea to ensure that the sea lanes stay open for unimpeded commerce.
Also, the US has its own bilateral ties with China to consider and will never go to war with the Chinese simply because the Philippines thinks so. Despite the long-running saber-rattling between the two countries over our shared waters, war doesn’t seem to be imminent between the superpowers.
I believe Duterte simply wants us to use the ruling on the South China Sea to our advantage, but not to use it as an excuse to go into a war we won’t win. And selling out to the Chinese is the job of Senator Antonio Trillanes, after all, not that of the new president.
Yes, all this talk of selling the country down the Yangtze River reminds me of the allegations made against Trillanes by former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile in 2012. Maybe one day soon, Enrile’s allegations against Trillanes, who walked out of the Senate in the middle of the senior senator’s philippic against him, will be substantiated—and karma will catch up with him, too.