“It’s time to wise up and end the master-fool relationship”
THE US sent the Philippines, with the conspiratorial consent of its president, into a “fool’s errand” the past two years, assigning the Philippines to bait China into clashes with Philippine maritime security forces in a patently American strategy named “assertive transparency.”
That was aimed at “exacting a reputational cost” or labelling China as a bully against the “poor, little Philippines.” Unfortunately for the US it hasn’t worked and now they are pushing Filipinos to own the failure.
A Financial Times article titled “Philippines wrestles with how to face down China while policing 7,000 islands” published on Dec. 31, 2024 had President Bongbong Marcos, Jr.’s Philippine National Security Council official Jonathan Malaya admit that: “We cannot go toe to toe with China… We are not a rising superpower like China who has enormous resources at their disposal, so we have to live with what we have.”
That is clearly a new and more modest tone from just a year ago.
Jonathan Malaya now sounds so forlorn, so alone, when just a year ago, he sounded so gung-ho with the gang led by Admiral Sam Paparo of the United States Indo-Pacific Command—ready to sail together with the Philippines along with Japan and Australia, in “joint patrols” in the South China Sea and even near the Taiwan Island to confront imagined invaders of the region and localities near and around the Philippines and its claimed territories or Exclusive Economic Zones.
In Aug. 2023, various Manila and international media headlined, “Philippines, US to mount West PH Sea Joint patrols by end-2023” quoting NSC Assistant Director-General Jonathan Malaya saying the country’s key strategies in the West Philippine Sea are “strengthening partnerships with other countries and allies supporting a rules-based order:
“The discussions on joint patrols are in their advanced stages… That’s going to be within this year.”
Since Feb. 2023 to last Dec. 2024, the Philippines had been escalating the tough talk with loud media megaphones, and threatening joint patrols in the contested areas not only with the US but also Japan, Australia and others.
Malaya was always at the frontlines, not only against China but also against Filipinos who disputed the operation of the US strategy of “assertive transparency” provocations.
In Aug. 2023, Malaya accused conscientious Filipinos exposing the US-proxy conspiracy to divide the Philippines and China using the South China Sea dispute as “political operators” and “traitors.”
The disputes have existed since the 1990s and have been dealt with through peaceful dialogues until 2023 when the US’ “assertive transparency” strategy was accepted by Bongbong Marcos, Jr.’s clique.
The Financial Times report quotes Vice-Admiral Alfonso Torres, of the Philippines’ Western Command, saying about China, “I never expected someone who wants to be a superpower to behave like Vikings…”
We try to be respectful of our military officers but they insult themselves by showing off their misunderstanding of reality, China does not want to be a superpower – it is a superpower and the Philippines has known that all along.
The fact is the Philippines under Bongbong Marcos, Jr. thought it could play off the White Anglo-Saxons Protestant superpower—the real Vikings progenies—the US against China in China’s own neighborhood where every country is friendly to China at the time China is rising as the most powerful nation in history.
Despite its growing power, China has sought harmony with all, including seeking to meet the Philippines “halfway” throughout the past two years of provocations.
Throughout the millennium of history between the Filipinos and China, the relations have been one of mutually beneficent trade and cultural exchanges.
In the struggle against Western colonialism, China supported the Philippine Revolution with arms supply against Spanish and the American colonizers, and against Japanese imperialism, a Chinese contingent – the Wah Chi – fought side-by-side with the guerilla Hukbalahap forces.
In President Duterte’s time, China donated countless facilities for drug-rehabilitation programs of the Philippine government, built the Chico River Irrigation Dam, gave bridges crossing the Pasig River and over the Davao River, contributed PhilSCAT rice research, launched the Kaliwa Dam water supply for Metro-Manila project, supported flood control infrastructure, boosted tourism and agri exports ad nauseum, yet connivance with the U.S. has gained nothing and lost so much for the Philippines.
The two years of “assertive transparency” has been an American “fool’s errand” for the Philippines. It’s time to wise up and end the master-fool relationship.