Maneuvering statements from our President Rodrigo Duterte flirting with China which appears more of a [“need to diversify its foreign policy” – according to the Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev] as of now, unless he formally withdraws our ties with the U.S.A. as an ally. Watch it here from Reuters.
America has lost now. I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow, and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world; China, Philippines, and Russia. It’s the only way. In this venue, your honors in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States.
-The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte
What makes his statement interesting?
1). There’s no “I” in TEAM,
2). Is there such thing as “against”? And what kind of against is he talking about? Against concerning what? and
3). “it’s the only way.”
Meanwhile, the White House said on Thursday; the government of the Philippines has not officially asked to end any security or economic ties between the U.S. and Manila. Source: ABS CBN News, Oct 21, 2016.
Looking at the bigger picture, it’s difficult to assume there are on-going mutual agreements on all sides with the hopes of maximizing peace while we base our approach through the paradigm based on division. In this case, Philippines (a long time U.S. ally) vs. China. Disregard “versus.” Clearly, as long as we put much focus favoring one over the other is a way of implementing division. So instead of “versus,” we change it to “in cooperation with China and United States”. Life is a process, and as we strive to make things right, it’s still reasonable enough to consider this as a “phase”. Results will eventually appear, and we’ll always end up working from there.
War is never an option, our military capacity is not even close to average engaging in an international level to handle this, and our development, in general, is not enough for global influence. Therefore, a war would be more than a disaster for us Philippines. And even if we have enough military might, we still believe that war will not help us.
Imagine if there’s going to be a war, it’ll put additional long agonizing decades of bitterness, discrimination, and paranoia for us to live. Winner (although technically we all lose after a war) may not have much concern about this, but it would reflect on each nation’s foreign policies, subjects of confrontations, treaties, and others that contribute to global policies as well. In the end, we still live under the paradigm of division because PEACE wasn’t really achieved. Yet, it will be written on papers carrying an intention for all nations to move-on with or without resolving underlying issues (ironically, there is some correctness from this measure). And yes, it is just a ceasefire.
What’s happening in the Philippines nowadays is an “in your face” example of “we reap what we sow.” Whatever it is we did years ago is something we’re earning right now and the things we do right now would be something we’ll earn in the future.
Let’s not dwell much on blaming. As a matter of fact, it’s us who should be blamed because we allowed this to happen in the first place. As we know this for a fact, let’s keep in mind the purpose of realizing our mistakes is for us to understand what went wrong or what lead us allowing this to happen. Pressing ourselves through blaming will never work. Do we deserve this? Hell yeah, we do! But we understand that each of us has our own share of thoughts whether we deserve this or not. Whatever it is, it won’t matter much because the results don’t care about our thoughts and feelings. Besides, the rest of the world care less about it as well (they have their own problems to deal with). Remember it’s us who allowed this to happen.
Below are the few causes that lead us to this international situation:
- We weren’t assertive enough to show to the Americans that the Philippines is a different nation which has its interests and has the ambition to develop as a regional player.
- In relation to the first one, we weren’t smart enough to prove that to the Americans.
- We clung to that mentality of “utang na loob” (sense of gratitude) so tight and ended up misinterpreting it. Which in a way, it made hard for the Americans not to use this advantage as they dictate their terms to us.
- We allowed ourselves to be less serious about choosing our candidates during past elections which gave cumulative adverse effects on us, such as what we’re dealing right now in an international level.
- We valued camaraderie or “pakikisama” that much ’til we ended up misusing it. Like for example, we didn’t report or weren’t keen enough to correct any wrongdoings happening around us, and as we do the math, it also supported corruption.
- Whether it was intentional or unintentional, there weren’t significant support or measures of empowerment given to our society aiming to trigger someone’s leadership capabilities. This led the next generation not even viewing leadership an essential one serving the public office.
- There was no leader brave enough to risk his / her political capital to improve the Philippines’ “online” capacity. [Ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge – quote from the movie Lucy] If nothing better is happening surrounding us, at least we can get some inspiration from what’s happening somewhere to start with.
- The attitude of over-reliance, with its roots from a typical Filipino family dynamics projecting to an international level such as having this firm reliance on the U.S.A.
- We just wanted to keep ourselves happy and comfortable.
(And the list goes on…)
This international conflict we’re experiencing is not something we can just ignore; or blindly pass it on our leaders; or use delaying tactics hoping someone can deal with it better in the future (assuming there is a future for us). No matter how frustrated we feel getting bullied by the United States with an incident of not addressing their concerns in regards to extrajudicial killings to our president properly, or by China through our territorial disputes, a responsible president should not risk the safety of his nation (especially with unbearable consequences) without implementing measures that encourages peace; and it starts with good communication. – Engaging with talks aiming to negotiate.
Powerful nations like China and the United States of America are just a few who have the tremendous capacity to destroy our country starting from a click of a button. If they want it to happen, then it will surely happen. Our President Rodrigo Duterte has a point; if World War 3 is going to materialize, there will be NO other country who would be so stupid enough to die for us. However, before the whole world gets fu*%#d up, we can’t be wrong dedicating ourselves towards PEACE. Sure, it’s fair to say we’re dealing this from the position of weakness, but it just so happen that it’s too hard to ignore PEACE as the right pathway to take and it’s never going to be easy. Imagine this; we are asserting the Philippines’ interests (both domestic – in the case of war against drugs/criminality; and international – in the case of territorial disputes) to these powerful nations who seem to be having some disagreements as well without putting gas on fire which might end up with military confrontations (with China) or breaking up ties (with the U.S.A.), or worse both. – This process requires sound strategy, patience, flexibility, and on the top of these, courage as well. At least we saw an opportunity from the situation caused by our mistakes.
Apparently, due to our disagreements with the U.S.A. (brought up by our president) and China, it also gave us a window to deliver our purpose. – Make these two nations realize that the Philippines is a fair country, and is willing to cooperate with every nation peacefully. By all means, he President Rodrigo Duterte has to pitch for China to re-balance our favoritism to the U.S.A. This is his strength brought to the international level: Law & Order, Fair treatment, and Neutrality while adhering to the Philippines’ economic interest.
If there’s PEACE, things are going to be biased towards a certain degree of trust. If there’s trust, then agreements are just nearby. This is important to us emerging nations because obviously, we’re not as advanced as the developed countries are.
Cooperation comes after agreements, and cooperation builds partnerships. So that along the way, may we harness success solving these global issues happening around, such as management of pollution, outdated policies, wildlife destruction, animal cruelty, terrorism, breach of data security, refugee crisis, the war in the middle-east, addressing moral hazard, drug menace, cancer & HIV, criminality, weapon-trafficking, corruption, poor social welfare, and a whole lot more. These are some of the issues (plus its web of effects) strong enough to make us feel living in hell. These are the real enemies.
War, as we all imagine, is like losing faith to humans’ geniuses. This is something we definitely don’t deserve because war is mainly participated by governments backed by politicians (and some private entities) carrying the reason of this so-called national interests and the rest of us would suffer the consequences for decades to come, which in the first place, it was never in our intention to end up such things.
Our territorial disputes with China would be indefinite in terms of time (could take decades to settle) assuming we won’t allow ourselves to be lenient on this issue. Thanks to Hague Ruling, it gave China and Philippines a window of opportunity for cooperation. As for the United States, we’re happy enough to maintain our relationship with them, but they have to understand that the Philippines has its interests too, and having an independent foreign policy is one of them. Overall, we think this cooperation is something that the United States welcomes. Because after all, it will help spur economic growth which is beneficial to the world. As we dedicate ourselves to PEACE, our primary goal is to earn other nations’ respect by providing better results or exceeding their expectations then eventually, we won’t be just called as their partner, but we’re also treated as their partner. Otherwise, they’re not going to take us seriously.
J. Letre
Sources:
Raw Photo: Reuters via straitstimes.com
News: CNN Philippines’ Pia Hontiveros spoke with Russian ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev via Facebook, Oct 06, 2016
News: China warns of World War 3 Unless the U.S. Backs Down On South China Sea, via ValueWalk, May 28, 2015
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