The US-puppet Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. just wrote an opinion piece for the Philippine Star, newspaper of U.S.-crony capitalist Manuel Pangilinan, Philippine agent of the Salim group. ’s. It is beyond me how the man can be assigned as representative of this country to the U.S.A. for whom he has long-served as PR agent to for an astronomical sum. This only bespeaks of the continuing colonial status of what we call the Philippine state.
Ambassador B. (as in “babes in the woods, which is what Amb. B. thinks of his readers of the Philippine Star) Romualdez says “EDCA is about deterrence, not conflict.” Amb. B argues further that “Those arguing against expanding the EDCA… declare it is tantamoutn to preparing for conflict… that could get us embroiled in a war over the Taiwan issue which, in their view, is ‘none of our business.’”
He quoted from Richard Javad Heydarian who said that, “diplomacy can only be effective when deployed from a position of strength” insinuating that BoboMarcos’ alignment with the U.S. puts the Philippines in a position of strength against China. What he does know but does not say and which BoboMarcos may not realize, is that it actually puts the Philippines totally prostate before the Americans who then steps on the Philippines’ neck.
Romualdez quotes from his usual echo chamber choir mates, Richard Javad Heydarin, a think tank asset of the U.S. Council of Foreign Relations, which is known the world over as “Wall Street’s Think Tank” and “Imperial Brain Trust” of the U.S., and Erick Nielsen Javier ,a little known small fry brain from the pool of the Philippine National Defense College..
Amb. B.’s quote insinuates that Duterte’s rapprochement with China and his “equi-distancing” from the major powers, puts the Philippines in a position of weakness when it actually did was to enhance the gravitas of the Philippines, a medium power-state, as fulcrum that determines the shift of power between the two contending forces. “Our strength grows out of our weakness” – R.W. Emerson.
Erick Javier supports Amb. B in this article, “Rethinking the Philippines’ Deterrence in the South China Sea” that “Manila should change the narrative from a focus on ‘how to defend’ against China toward a more active strategy of deterring China.” As President Duterte and his National Security Adviser Hermongenes Esperon have repeatedly asserted, “China is not an enemy.”
Even BoboMarcos had said, on countless occasions, that China is a “good friend” and “strongest partner”, and that because of China’s friendship, he will implement an “independent foreign policy.” But dumb 180-degree turnaround in less than a year without rhyme nor reason that I have to call him “BoboMarcos” today. Is it because of the –“sweet nothings” whispered into his ears by some babes in Toyland?
As Duterte once state posed, what is there to deter from a friend such as China whose desperately needed 55-million doses anti-Covid vaccines arrived just in the nick of time at the end February 2022 to roll out the national vaccination program for tens of millions of Filipinos. Are these anti-China Filipino-Amboys so selfish that they cannot remember these? The US delayed their vaccine donations for a year!
What is to deter from a benefactor that has provided the P 12.2-billion funding to complete the Kaliwa Dam project that, when completed in 2027, will provide 600-million/liters per day of potable water for the 25-million population of Metro-Manila and some Southern Tagalog Region provinces who thirst to for water every day this summer?
We can fill several pages enumerating the diverse range of projects funded by China to assist the Philippines in alleviating the deficits in social amenities faced by Filipinos from the north of the country to the southernmost islands – irrigation, power supply, transportation, roads and bridges – even as these nihilistic, cynical, egomaniacal selfish Amboys manipulate news to destroy Philippine-China ties.
The American Under-secretary of State Victoria Nuland during her infamous visit to Manila tried to discrede China-Philippine economic cooperation saying, ““We’ve seen a lot of promises from Beijing. How many of those promises have actually converted into jobs, into the kind of investment that is sustainable, and that brings benefits to the Philippines rather than just to Beijing?” This has been echoed by American Ambassador MaryKay Carlson and some Philippine politicians and media.
The facts are: farmers are boosting harvests in Kalinga and Cagayan with irrigation from the China River Dam project with China, taxi and Grab drivers are boosting incomes using the convenience of the Estrella-Pantaleon and Binondo-Intramuros bridges, hybrid rice technology is advancing productivity at the PhilSCAT technology project in Nueva Ecija, and the list goes on and on. Metro-Manila will no longer dread summer water shotages when Kaliwa Dam opens in 2027.
Babes Romualdez raises another allegation, unproven and ephemeral, to malign Chinese fishing boats that are supposedly disguised “Chinese fishing militia”, although he presents not a shred of evidence and even if there is no single arraigned case of harassment filed by Filipino fishermen against these Chinese boats. If arraigned, a single case could reward genuine victims with thousands, if not millions of pesos in damages if proven and prosecuted successfully.
Amb. B and his cohorts do not file as they could not prosecute because they have no case against any of these “maritime militia” fishing boats, because their allegations are erroneous or outright false reports and news. The DFA, which is riddled with American termites, churns out meaningless toilet paper-diplomatic protests while the PCG incompetents, as called by Atty. Harry Roques because of the PCG’s top man behavior on the oil spill case, simply grandstand on sensational fake news.
Romualdez builds on the so-called incursion of Chinese vessels – even if these are fishing vessels plying their “traditional fishing grounds” notwithstanding the arbitration award which is dipusted. Actually, the largest contingent of fishing vessels in the SCS are the Vietnamese, the most frequent poachers in claimed Philippine waters, as former Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has repeatedly said.
The issue of the arbitration award is raised to buttress the claim that its Philippine EEZ, but it is important to be reminded that the UN itself has denied anything to do with the arbitration process done by a body that is not even a court and attended by only one party, funded by the Philippines government and paid to American lawyers, and has no means of being enforced.
Romualdez cites the article of Japanese Global Council of the International House of Japanmember and former Asahi Shimbun editor-in-chief Yoichie Funabashi “To counter China’s ‘reactive assertiveness’.” Apparently, Romualdez is not aware that the council and the Japanese personality he cites are Japanese conservative institutions associated with the Trilateral Commission that is promoting American hegemony and forward deployment.
Romualdez is sustained by a phalanx of American assets in the Philippines, from the real owner of the Philippines Star to his mentally-challenged younger cousin in Malacañang. Amb. B. is representing the Philippines in the land of its colonial master the U.S.A., having been for decades the P.R. man of the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. No other country would have such an ambassador nor any respectable newspaper employ such a columnist.
But this is the Philippines where the knaves are in the positions of power all the time, never changing, always holding sway, eating away at the foundations and dreams of the republic and the nation, ready to annihilate the people for the sake of the paymaster – even as the paymaster is sinking and sinking into final obliteration.
EDCA is a proxy war preparation, even though at the rate things are going, the U.S. may no longer have the money to wage another war after it failed in Ukraine. China, as Sun Tzu said centuries ago, will always try and aim to win a war without fighting – which it is clearly achieving even now. What happens from hereon? I am reminded of a scene from World War II when the conflict ended, as the French tore by their hair French prostitutes who collaborated with the Nazis – B. Romualdez may be thankful he is nearly bald
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