By Jonathan Dela Cruz
The Palace has spoken on the two hottest diplomatic concerns we are having at the moment—the reported continuing militarization by Beijing of the disputed areas in the South China Sea or, for political correctness by the standards of some quarters, the West Philippine Sea, and the DFA-led rapid rescue operations in Kuwait.
On SCS/WPS, Malacañang has advised that the government “…will exhaust all possible diplomatic options..will resort to diplomatic protest as needed once there is a validation of the latest Chinese move on the disputed islands they have been occupying for sometime..”
No need for harsh language or to send any vessel specially a gray one as the previous administration did at the first sight of pictures of “militarization” sent by US-based groups.
President Duterte himself has time and again reminded the public, local and international, that the Philippines will not go to war over these islands. That will be a disaster worse than anybody ever dreamed of. Even the Americans. Better to hold our horses (including the Hague Declaration on our earlier claim) and wait for a better opportunity to have this and other possible winning cards on the table as and when our friendly initiatives towards Beijing get some traction.)
Obviously, Malacañang has been chastised by the Aquino administration’s stridently anti-Chinese, anti-negotiations stance.
Nothing but heartache and more Chinese reclamation in the contested areas came out of our braggadocio for six years. Plus occasional fleet visits and condemnation from the Americans and their allies.
This time he would rather do things quietly, conduct even more research on the conflicting claims of the five countries presently in the area and people-to-people contacts with Beijing. We all know that war cries and shows of force have their limitations specially in cases such as this. After all, as Bill Hayton, an acknowledged expert on China and the SCS dispute noted, there is no new territory that the Chinese are claiming or working on in the area.
Said Hayton “….Most of the international media coverage on the ‘island building program of the Chinese’…contained an element of panic about China’s apparent ‘swallowing’ of the South China Sea..The scale of the construction tended to obscure the fact that China had not occupied any new territory; it had built on reefs it had occupied for two decades…”
In a word, they are merely consolidating their position in an area they believe and have said so, as part of their national territory and to strengthen their defense of their national interest.
Which begs the question: if the Chinese are strengthening their hold over territories in the SCS/WPS they have occupied for years, why are we hesitating to do the same in our own islands? Money should not be a problem. If we can allocate P157 billion for DAP, why can’t we allocate funds to buttress our hold on our own piece of property in the disputed areas? Better still, why don’t we ask the Americans, if they are so concerned about the Chinese take over of their own occupied areas? To ensure that the Chinese know Big Brother is watching?
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Now, as to the Kuwait issue, the Palace has also made things very, very clear after that botched (and diplomatically embarrassing DFA- led rapid rescue operation) which led to the expulsion of our own Ambassador Rene Villa, the recall of Kuwait’s envoy in Manila, the issuance of arrest warrants on three other Filipino diplomats now holed up in the Embassy, the blacklisting of longtime Filipino residents in Kuwait who assisted the 47-man rapid rescue group, the temporary stoppage of the repatriation of our nationals still languishing in our shelters in Kuwait and the halt in the deployment of our workers, even those skilled or on vacation, to that country.
Soft landing muna. No need to exacerbate things. And proceed to back channeling.
Which is as it should be at this point. There is no question that we should exert all efforts to ensure the safety and well being of our workers. There is no question that we should try as best we can to put in place the best possible working and living conditions for our nationals abroad whether in Kuwait or elsewhere. That is a responsibility we cannot outsource or renege on. But there is a limit to what we can do in the host countries. We cannot be their policemen.
We cannot be their judges or justice system. We cannot be doing things as we please. We have to work with the authorities in the host countries at all times. Otherwise, if we do things on our own involving say, commercial disputes and employment ones. As in the case of our household workers. We cannot just be knocking at each and every house employing our nationals and start making all kinds of moves to “rescue” them if they as much as complain about their conditions. That is an affair needing the assistance and concurrence of the local authorities to do.
That is what the DFA led posse did. Worse, they officially uploaded it on the DFA website and urged Duterte followers to copy and share.
What were they thinking? That Kuwaiti authorities will just look the other way and let this to happen? Not at all. Even in Manila, any such intrusive operation will really be looked with utmost disfavor and dealt with accordingly.
So for now, let the landing be soft. Let the spoken and written words be as diplomatic as possible. Let the stalled discussions on the proposed MOA to improve the working and living conditions in Kuwait resume and let this unfortunate incident in our relations be resolved as quietly and properly as possible.