In a show of strength and unity, the Democratic Party nominated Hillary Clinton its presidential candidate against the Republicans‘ Donald Trump. Hillary was nominated by acclamation to the resounding ayes in the Philadelphia convention hall after Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed his rival. The former first lady, New York senator and Secretary of State is the first woman nominated by a major US political party.
She will make bigger history if she wins as the first US woman president. America already made political history when it elected the first Catholic president in John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Barack Obama as the first black to occupy the White House. The polls and signs augur well for a Clinton victory over Trump.
Americans in November will decide between her and the billionaire businessman. Trump with his abrasive campaign style had to put down a “dump Trump” undercurrent before he won the GOP nomination in Cleveland.
NSC meeting
The National Security Council convened by President Rodrigo Duterte for the first time brought together the incumbent and four former Presidents: Joseph Estrada, Fidel V. Ramos, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. Aquino never convened the NSC, not even once, during his six-year term. This, despite pressing national security concerns like China’s West Philippine Sea encroachment, the Mamasapano massacre of 44 PNP-SAF commandos by a combined force of Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
How to proceed with caution on the Bangsamoro Basic Law which Duterte wants to implement is also on the NSC agenda. How would it affect peace in Mindanao and the proposed federal system of government?
The NSC meeting turned out to be an awkward moment for Arroyo and Aquino. GMA meet her jailer Aquino for the first time in six years. She had been ordered freed by the Supreme Court after it ruled that evidence against her in the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office plunder case was insufficient.
Aquino tried to avoid Arroyo by skipping Duterte’s State of the Nation Address last Monday where the two of them would have been seated side by side with Ramos and Estrada. But not attending the NSC would have been a dereliction of duty for former President Aquino. National security concerns such as the South China Sea territorial tension and the Mamasapano massacre happened during his watch.
Meanwhile, the office of former President Ramos wrote in to say FVR is up to the job of special envoy to China. While we are confident that he is, the problem is in dealing with the duplicitous Chinese officials across the table. China is firm and steadfast in keeping the military bases it has built on the man-made islands in the Spratlys.
Being a military man (West Point graduate and former AFP Chief of Staff), Ramos would have the keen mind how those Chinese military outposts affect Philippine national security and what its ramifications are for the rest of the region.
Perhaps FVR should also bring former Secretary Rafael Alunan along during the bilaterals. It’s always good to have another person’s viewpoint on how the Chinese are playing us. Why not Chito Sta. Romana, too, who speaks fluent Mandarin having spent years as an exile in China and as Beijing bureau manager of the American ABC TV network?
These bilateral talks with China, being a non-government unofficial mission, is expected to be exploratory and its outcome non-binding to both sides. It would, nevertheless, be a good start to smooth out strained relations between Manila and Beijing. That is, if China is willing to concede a few and certain conditions that will no doubt prevail in these talks.
The bilateral talks with China come after the recent affirmation by the Supreme Court of the validity of the PHL-US Defense Cooperation Agreement and the visit of Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry reiterated that the US would stand alongside the Philippines against external attacks even as he affirmed the US commitment to the freedom of navigation and over flights in international waters and airspace in the disputed area of the South China Sea. This is where the danger lies. A miscalculation by either US or Chinese airplanes or warships could spark an armed conflict in the powder-keg SCS situation.
This is something we all hope does not happen because the Philippines will surely be caught in the crossfire between the world’s two superpowers. This scenario is too scary to contemplate. Any armed confrontation might not be confined to a conventional ground war. Both the US and China have nuclear capability and it takes only one itchy finger on the nuclear button to trigger a global destruction and casualties in the millions.
