There are areas in which President Rodrigo Duterte is on track in his administration’s effort to serve the Filipino people. His relentless war on drugs, despite concerns about extrajudicial killings of suspected pushers and users, has gained traction with the public. The body count has reached 3,000—and still counting, with the suspicious slaying of drug trafficking suspect Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte. Espinosa was shot dead inside his prison cell in Baybay, Leyte by policemen supposedly serving a search warrant for hidden drugs.
The people, nonetheless, according to a recent poll survey, still support Digong in this brutal war on drugs. As far as they are concerned, Espinosa is just another statistic in this dark page of the nation’s history.
Digong’s weak spot is foreign affairs. He has drawn global condemnation for the rising number of drug suspects killed while allegedly resisting arrest. For getting flak from the United States, United Nations and the European Union, Duterte called them “stupid experts” who have no business meddling in his country’s internal affairs. He went further to say that donor countries can withdraw their foreign and the Philippines can survive without US, UN and EU assistance. Yeah, right.
“I have the proper perspective in knowing what foreign policy is good for the country and what is not,” explained the President, claiming he is a foreign service graduate of the Lyceum University in Manila. Oh, yeah? A research by Vera Files published by the Philippine Star didn’t show the name of Duterte among the roster of foreign service graduates. He is a certified graduate of law, however, in San Beda College and a member of the Philippine Bar. These qualified him as a public prosecutor and later as mayor of Davao City.
Why is foreign policy the weakest area of this administration? Duterte’s chosen one for Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Perfecto Yasay Jr., is also a lawyer. He was formerly head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. But his being head of the SEC certainly is not enough to qualify him as secretary of Foreign Affairs. His lapses or shortcomings in foreign policy would show he merely echoes what his President says. That would be mouthing statements that are considered flawed in the first place.
In what may be a change of heart or mind, Duterte was reported on Monday as saying he would no longer oppose the Balikatan war exercises between Filipino and American troops. He feels the same now for the Supreme Court-validated Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the US and the Philippines.
There are claims that Yasay is a dual citizen of the US and the Philippines. He denies these allegations, even as he did not refer to questions about being a US resident. He lived in the US for more than 15 years in self-imposed exile during the Marcos martial law years. To be able to reside in the US that long, one must be granted asylum and residency by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.
It is legal to be appointed to a Philippine government position if one can show proof or document renouncing either or both his citizenship and residency status. If he has not, then these issues will haunt Yasay from staying as SFA or even if he is nominated Philippine ambassador to Washington.
Meanwhile, a reader from the US raised some relevant questions on the government’s plans to abrogate the PHL-US Mutual Defense Treaty and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and to purchase weapons from China and Russia. Apparently versed on the salient points of both the 1951 MDT and EDCA, the reader wrote:
“By curtailing joint war exercises with the US, Duterte is actually violating provisions of the MDT on both sides to enhance the ability of its partner to respond to external threats and exigencies. By ignoring the fact that MDT is part of the law of the land, which the President swore to uphold when he took his oath of office, he is culpable of violating it.”
The reader is trying to verify reports Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, during his Commission on Appointments confirmation hearing, said that prospective purchase of firearms from China would be problematic because the operating manuals are printed in Mandarin. While some might see this as resistance to Duterte’s policy shift, what Lorenzana didn’t say was this arms purchase would actually set the stage for China’s People’s Liberation Army technical advisers and trainors to come into the country. Couple this with the President’s willingness to hold joint war exercises with the Chinese, this would imply possible PLA presence in the Philippines.
Let’s hear the reaction from the usually noisy, leftist militant crowd demonstrating in front of the US embassy in Manila. Are they willing and ready to host an invasion from China?
