Many were skeptical, even afraid, that President Duterte’s announcement of an independent foreign policy would spell doom for the economy, and may even trigger political problems for the new president.
One year after his astounding victory in the 2016 elections, it does not seem that way. Even his approval and trust ratings from the people have remained high. Two months from now, he will deliver his second State of the Nation Address to Congress and the people, and there will be so much to report, so many changes to show. Changes are happening quite fast.
From the very beginning, Duterte simply said what he, as a Filipino, felt about a supra-subservient foreign policy that assumed America could do no wrong by us. Through words and actions, he threw out what the president inaugurated after the Second World War established as doctrine: That the Philippines would always be guided by the “benevolent” protection of the United States of America.
Duterte bristled at the way leaders of the US and even Europe hectored him on the conduct of the country’s war on drugs on account of alleged human rights violations. And he gave colorful retorts that made many wince.
He would wean the country away from being a clone of the West in Asia. He would make us think and act like the Orientals that we truly are.
He went overdrive on his rekindling of relations with our nearest neighbor to our northwest, China. Where leaders before him made it a point to visit the US of A after the Asean, Duterte did the opposite. He visited China. And for appropriate balance, Japan as well, where his independence was much appreciated.
In the Asean Summit in Vientianne, Laos, he did not seek a one-on-one with POTUS, then Barack Obama. He even spewed epithets against the outgoing American leader, “undiplomatic” to many observers, but Duterte matter-of-factly said what he felt about the interventionist stance of our former colonial “master.”
And in China on his first visit, he embraced friendship with the dragon, relegating to the back-burner what many flag-waving “patriots” wanted him to use as weapon against the insistence of the other country on its supposed historical claims over the South China Sea.
Duterte was being practical. It may be good optics for him as our new leader to thump our chest on the UN arbitral court’s decision, but then what? Could we assert our claims and defend it with weapons we do not have? Could we rely on the “great” US of A to fight for us?
Knowing that neither were in the realm of the probable, and knowing further that our big neighbor to the West was willing to assist us by way of massive investments and economic assistance, he wisely declared to the whole world his turning back on previous foreign policy to embrace a truly independent one where the Philippines would be enemy of none and friend to all.
Our newly appointed foreign affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, told me that in his talks with officials of other countries, whether in the Asean or the Middle East, one common thread was admiration for Duterte being able to say on the international stage what “they themselves feel but could not publicly express.”
Now in Beijing for the forum on the Belt and Road Initiative, Duterte will have bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to firm up previous agreements that would greatly spur the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program of his government.
Filipinos so used to groveling for pittance from US-sponsored grants will be awed at the magnitude of what China, Japan and other countries will soon give, all because Duterte’s credibility as a no-nonsense leader and his independent foreign policy is precisely what we need to start moving forward with purpose and determination.
Ambitious though it is, the One-Belt, One-Road initiative of China seeks to link Europe with Asia and Africa by land and sea routes reminiscent of the ancient Silk Road. And the Philippines which would have been an isolated island in the midst of these developments, will now become a major participant.
Funding assistance for two new bridges spanning the Pasig River in order to help alleviate the traffic, the railroad modernization from Manila to Calamba, and expansion all the way to Bicol, the Kaliwa Dam for new fresh water sources, as well as the Chico Dam for irrigation expansion are part of some thirteen projects already approved in principle. With a frenetic pace that Duterte has directed his economic managers and implementing agencies to pursue, finally we may be able to catch up with our more advanced neighbors in Southeast Asia.
Duterte has likewise demonstrated his determination to stamp out corruption in government by swift action and not mere words. The kind of corruption that has delayed and worse, thrown into the waste-bin significant big-ticket projects under previous governments will now be a thing of the past.
Yes Virginia, independence pays. But you need a strong-willed and fully determined leader to make sure it does pay.
I recall how President Corazon Aquino towards the end of her term, rued how the “noble houses of finance,” referring to the World Bank, the IMF, and all the multi-lateral institutions and a slew of foreign banks to which Marcos had earlier pawned our future would teach her, and us, the painful lesson that “democracy pays no dividends.”
Duterte fully understands that, and is intent on ensuring that an independent foreign policy would allow the country to cash in on opportunities brought about by a changing and evolving world economic order.