If we are to go by the glowing statements made in the aftermath of President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to China last week, we would say it was a huge success.
We were able to renew our ties with our neighbor, calm the tension brought by the territorial dispute and the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration that was favorable to us but not to China, and assure it that we were willing to pursue bilateral relations instead of involving other parties in our issues.
In fact Mr. Duterte felt so comfortable with his Chinese hosts that he was able to say anew how he really felt about the United States, announcing our separation with it. Hurray for independent foreign policy.
For those inclined to rely on empirical proof, however, the best manifestation of the trip’s success was the pledge of billions of dollars worth of loans and investments for the country.
The thinking goes that all the provocative talk was for theatrical purposes; what really matters are the infrastructure, the jobs and eventual income that would eventually redound to the Filipino people.
For many, this was a good-enough tradeoff.
Unfortunately, we now hear reports that exaggerations may have been made. Some of the Chinese firms which have supposedly pledged to undertake big-ticket projects in the Philippines may have blemished records: banned due to malpractice or involved in accidents in other countries. At least one has been said to be undercapitalized, hence lacking in capability for the projects they have committed.
A lawmaker on Thursday emphasized the need to conduct due diligence on the projects that would be undertaken by foreign governments and corporations in the country.
This call is an insult to every member of the team that went out there and went for the pledges. It assumes that they do not know how fundamental it is to know, foremost, the kind of entities they are dealing with. It tells us they are gullible enough to fall for false representations or stupid enough to still deal with these firms.
Worse, it presupposes that the government is just too desperate to report to the people that there were pledges, whatever the quality of these pledges are. Sounds a lot like embellishments—no, lies.
It would be good if the reports we received reflected whatever it was that was happening, and we did not have to read the fine print to know what is truly going on.
Filipinos are still getting used to their President saying one thing and his subalterns insisting he really meant another. How easy and simple it would be if we could take our leader’s words at face value.
