“The Philippines needs to get back to constructive diplomacy.”
The Philippine Daily Inquirer of October 4, 2024 headline screamed, “Neighbors’ silence emboldens China’s illegal acts – PCG,” quoting Commodore Jay Tarriela, echoing USAF Col. Raymond Powell (ret.) of the US Office of Naval Research, addressing Australian media at the National Press Club of Australia.
Tarriela also said, “While it is understandable that some Southeast Asian nations prioritize their national interest, particularly economic engagement with China over exposing the illegal actions of Beijing, this approach unfortunately contributes to China’s boldness in defying international law… This situation serves as a reminder of how the international community has turned a blind eye allowing China to illegally occupy these maritime features and carry out reclamation activities for military purposes.”
Tarriela added, “allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on…”
He did not realize that in citing the “rules-based order,” he is merely repeating an American-concocted term for a nebulous set of rules only U.S. vassal states orbiting around U.S. imperialist leadership accepted. This is no more than the G-7 and a motley crew third-tier countries like the Philippines under President Bongbong Marcos, Jr.
The only International Law recognized by 193 nations of the United Nations enshrined in “conventions, treaties and standards” under its auspices and incorporating Customary International Law includes “international obligations arising from established international practices…” In contrast, the US “rules-based order” has been described as “rules for three but not for me” that allowed the U.S. and allies to wage illegal wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, ad nauseam.
Tarriela was really griping against the nine other ASEAN countries that have shunned any involvement with the post-Duterte Philippine approach to its claims to portions of the South China Sea with other Asian and ASEAN claimants, namely China and Taiwan, and Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam. The other ASEAN countries are being polite to the Philippines but there are actually critical grumblings against the Philippines’ complicity with the on-going U.S. strategy of tension against China.
Our ASEAN neighbors have tried to make themselves heard over the years in many indirect ways in keeping with Asian’s non-confrontational cultural ways. Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim visited Manila in March 2023 and said in an interviewon ANC that “US… military presence in our view should be avoided because that would then provoke and escalate tension… we want to preserve ASEAN as a zone of peace, neutrality, and freedom, of course.”
In November 2023, then Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong in a forum asked “Are you sure Filipinos want to get into a fight where you will be the battleground?” – a comment that the columnist Richard Heydarian wrote “…didn’t go down well with many Filipinos who lament the lack of support, if not outright abandonment, from its ASEAN brethren amid its intensifying maritime tussle with the Asian superpower.”
But there is a reason why ASEAN has abandoned the Philippines on this score.
The reason for the ASEAN “brethren” snub of the Philippines on this matter is reflected by a Jakarta Post editorial of October 4, 2024. This was entitled “ASEAN and defense pact” regarding the habit of the Philippines under PBBM to do it alone on its bilateral defense ties with the U.S. and its allies without considering ASEAN sensitivities. This, and the declaration of the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOFPAN) which PM Anwar Ibrahim mentioned and the Southeast Asian Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, regarding the Japan-PH defense pact:
“The Marcos government apparently did not inform or consult fellow ASEAN members about the defense treaty beforehand, which it was supposed to do given the impact of the agreement on the region. The signing had been well anticipated, however, as President Marcos and PM Kishida had announced the plan in November. Neither has there been any initiative from Manila to send a special envoy to brief other ASEAN leaders about the new alliance, at least as a matter of diplomatic courtesy.”
Tarriela’s complaint against the Philippines and ASEAN neighbors finally closes the 11-year saga of its filing of arbitral proceedings against the PROC which Justice Carpio in 2016 upon the “awarding” promised would ”force China to comply” and the recent “assertive transparency” strategy of USAF Col. Raymond Powell said would “build international support” for the Philippines’ SCS claim, all of which have utterly failed.
The Philippines needs to get back to constructive diplomacy.
rpkapunan@gmail.com
