“To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.”
This quotation from the historian Will Durant must have been foremost in the minds of our government officials who issued statements about Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last week.
As Russian rockets and artillery pounded Ukrainian targets Friday half a world away, the Department of Foreign Affairs called on the international community to reaffirm its commitment to settling disputes through peaceful means.
“The Philippines calls on the international community to reaffirm by more than words its commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes,” the statement read. “We recall the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes, which provides the legal framework for recourse to diplomacy, dialogue, and rule of law.”
“In the present crisis, where the situation is not irreversible and there is no compelling reason for any of the protagonists to resort to hostile actions, turning to the Manila Declaration is the pragmatic and decent way to go,” it added.
It urged all parties to exert every effort to stick to diplomatic and peaceful means to maintain international peace and security and avert a humanitarian crisis.
We understand the need to be cautious in foreign policy and not to ruffle any feathers unnecessarily, but statements such as this—released as well by other countries with little skin in the game—suffer one major flaw. In calling on both sides to use diplomatic and peaceful means, they suggest that both parties were somehow responsible for going to war, which is clearly not the case with Russia’s decision to invade another sovereign state to overthrow its government and to replace it with a more pliable puppet regime. To tell the courageous Ukrainians, who are defending their homeland with Molotov cocktails against Russian tanks, that they should resort to diplomacy is the ultimate insult.
In an unguarded moment, the Defense secretary said the Philippines doesn’t care about what happens in some faraway country.
“We don’t care about Europe or with what they are doing there; we are not near Ukraine. The countries near its borders already expressed support for Ukraine. For us, we will remain neutral for now,” he said in Filipino.
He later walked back his statements, saying he does care, after all—but the insistence on remaining neutral speaks to a lack of national character and backbone.
The late South African human rights advocate Desmond Tutu spoke of the peril of staying neutral.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor,” he said. “If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Even if only by words, we should call out the elephant and condemn the Russian invasion.
