Just before flying to Washington DC to take up his post as the newly minted ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Jose Manuel G. “Babe” Romualdez asked President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for any specific instructions or mandate in dealing with the world’s only superpower and the Philippines’ long-time ally, America.
“Is there anything you want me to do?” Babe asked Duterte, actually the chief architect of the Philippines’ foreign policy.
“Just do your job,” was the President’s crisp but incisive reply.
Babe told me in a tv interview:
“That clearly tells me that it’s important for us to communicate our concerns with the United States. At the same time, keep that relationship on an even keel. So we have to promote good relations with the US. So doing my job and looking at my job description, we will be there to represent the President and be able to communicate to every single American and to people in Washington DC, to the US Congress, to the US President, and to the Defense establishment what our policy is: ‘We would like you to join us especially when it comes with military relationship’. And there are things here that we have to disagree on or we will agree to disagree.”
Babe comes to his Washington DC job with nearly half a century of skill and experience as a newsman, a broadcast and public relations executive, as a civic leader, and as a no-nonsense businessman managing and owning a publishing house and one of the most highly regarded public relations, advertising and marketing multinationals in the Philippines.
Philippine-US relations are at a critical point. Initially, President Duterte great dislike for America. He cursed then President Obama and vowed not to visit the United States.
Duterte is not alone in his attitude. A 2017 Pew Research survey found out that only 49 percent of Filipinos think of the US as the world’s leading economic power, down from 66 percent in 2015 and 68 percent in 2014. And only 78 percent of Filipinos have favorable image of the US, down 14 points from 92 percent in 2015 and 2014.
To reboot PH-US relations, Duterte has sent Babe Romualdez to Washington DC.
Enthused Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto after Romualdez’s Commission on Appointments confirmation hearing which the nominee breezed thru easily on on Aug. 23, 2017:
“Our man in Washington DC is no babe in the woods in US affairs. Though principally based in Manila, he has enough contacts in the American capital that he can be considered a Beltway insider. So wide is his network, I was told, that should [President] Trump drain the swamp, those flushed away and those who will remain are surely friends of his. So wired is he with the beating heart of the US government, that a friend has joked that if the nominee decides to swim across the Potomac unannounced, someone in Foggy Bottom will be waiting with a set of dry clothes for him.”
“But more than connections,” Recto explained, “[Babe] has many other competencies, not to mention the communication skills, which make him a fine diplomat. He is articulate in both the spoken and written word. He was a TV reporter, and remains a working journalist, churning multiple columns in a week, in addition to running a publishing house.”
Ralph, grandson of the late nationalist Filipino senator and statesman Claro M. Recto, added: “Though he [Babe] has not held public office, he dabbles in policy, which qualifies him as a public intellectual whose views shape major decisions taken by those in power. He is an influencer, but of the cerebral kind, whose contributions to civic debates are not confined to 140-character blasts, or troll-friendly memes, but in well thought-out think pieces.”
Chimed in Senator Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the CA Committee on Foreign Affairs which vetted Romualdez:
“You [addressing the Senate President, Aquilino Pimentel III, CA chair] and I will agree that his sartorial elegance and refined public relations make for effective diplomatic bilateral relations with the United States.”
“This serves the country in good stead as observed during the onslaught of typhoon Yolanda in November 2013. His close ties with the US Embassy expedited the response of USS George Washington, which made possible rescue missions and emergency airlifts to Leyte.”
“Our nominee’s policy of mutually beneficial cooperation anchored on mutual respect and equality as sovereign nations are crucial to maintaining the longstanding relations between the Philippines and the United States, with no less than the current US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim welcoming his appointment with warm congratulations will guarantee strong diplomatic engagement with the US,” said Senator Lacson.
The CA briefing paper, Lacson noted, “says he is an Americanophile, which is good, because it means that he is abreast with US developments, and attuned to policy debates that would have an impact on our country.”
Romualdez emphasizes that “President Duterte on many occasions has stated that the Philippines is America’s best friend in Asia.”
“This will be our guiding light,” says Babe, “as our team at the Embassy will work to ensure that the partnership between the United States and the Philippines remains to be a clear and decisive commitment to the principles that underpin the alliance. We look forward to bright prospects ahead, and I have every confidence that we will be successful in our mission with the support and partnership of leaders in the US government, the Fil-American community, our friends and all stakeholders.”
The US was the Philippines’ biggest trading partner in 2016 (out of 226 trading partners) and the second biggest market for Philippine exports (out of 213 export markets), accounting for 16 percent of total PHL exports. The US is also the Philippines’ third largest investor. Over the past five years, US foreign investments in the Philippines have amounted to P165.93 billion.