After almost two weeks of absence I have managed to come
back to blog again. I’ll explain part of the reason in my commentary on health
which readers can access on left column on the list of general topics.
Slapstick comedy or soap opera drama – Philippine politics at its worst.
The latest headlines of the major dailies focus on the slapping challenge between two candidates the EM (Establishment Media. a.k.a. mainstream media) is highlighting these days – Rodrigo Duterte and Mar Roxas – to face each other in a slapping match. How inane and meaningless cnthis campaign still get!
The EM seems to be dis-Gracing
the 2016 presidential elections by dismounting her name which it propped up with
soap –opera drama since September 2014 when the Little Ms. Poe-ppet of the U.S.
through Uncle (Washington) Sycip (see the November 15, 2015 blog) was foisted
upon the Filipino electorate despite her blatant and deliberate flaunting of
the provisions of the Constitution on citizenship requirement for candidacy to
elective national office.
One of our colleagues Ferdie
Pasion believes, as he texted to us today: “Si Duterte and bagong kandidato ng
Inquirer, Star, ABS-CBN and other Aquino-owned media. Obvious na pinalalabas nilang
ONLY opposition si Duterte when he is just a fade opposition and a YELLOW just
like Mr and Binay who are also Yellows.” Indeed, the hated Yellows have to try
to monopolize the elections by owning all the candidates or else their 1986
counter-revolution may finally end.
Electricity Consumer protection advocate and anti-power oligarchy crusader Jojo Borja called us with fire in his breath raging against the apparent rising popularity of Duterte and all the “populist” attributes credited him. Borja denounced Duterete as “tuta” or puppet of the power oligarchs of Mindanao, particularly the likes of Alcantara and Aboitiz who’re complicit in creating the power shortages in Mindanao and exploiting these to corner IPP contracts, pus coal fired power plants and creep towards destroying the hydroelectric power and potential of Mindanao to privatize them later.
When one looks just a centimeter below the tough guy façade of Duterte one immediately sees a dud, actually an effeminate character capable of exterminating only the small roaches, and legally as in the killing of the three kidnap-rapists he boasts of since those three were caught holding firearms. Dud-terte’s legendary peace with the NPA is reportedly bought with revenues from gold trading hence also the special relations Dutete enjoys with Jose Ma. Sison. This man is no nationalist as he is supporting the Americans’ yen for the BBL and federalism to weaken any potential nationalist central government. ###
My presidential candidate?
In the course of this presidential election campaign I am invariably asked who my candidate. When I answer that I have none, no one, I am given that incredulous or that “spoil sport” look. Maybe some also think I am arrogant elevating my self above their little game and fun. I look at the presidential elections in this country as merely an opportunity to expose the inanity of it all and hope that will bring some future social revolution closer to being realized.
Lately I found a way to highlight the quality of a presidential candidate that I would take seriously, i.e. that of having an organized social movement with an ideology guiding it and the potential of mobilizing military forces behind its assumption of government. Any candidate without these would just be a puppet, just as all the major presidential candidates today in the Philippines are. But I say, my presidential candidate are all vice-presidential candidates.
Trillanes has the 500,000 strong Magdalo and the military links to be a true president, as does Neri Colminares who can count on the movement behind the Makabayan Coalition that elects up to seven party-list representatives to Congress and the you-know-what as military arm, and finally Bongbong Marcos who counts on the Solid North and half of the South, and military still loyal to the memory and ideals of Apo Ferdie who brought glory to the military establishment once. Anyone of these three gets the Ayalas and Aboitizes shaking in their ranchero boots.
Climate change summit moro-moro.
I classify the AGM (Anthropogenic Global Warming) that metamorphosed into the Climate Change alarmism movement as a globalists’ fraud on a much higher level than the 2009 Swine Flu scare to sell useless vaccine drugs. Ever since climate scare businessman (carbon trade consultant) Al Gore came up with his “An Inconvenient Truth” to exploit the U.N.’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) career bureaucrats, academic “experts” and environmentalist NGOs to keeping their employment and UN mandated government funding going, Climate as global and cottage industry has been thriving.
But the inconvenient truth for them is the “global warming hiatus” or halt for almost two decades of increase in global temperature since January 1997 (see http://www.breitbart.com/big-
Climate Change guru James Hansen lashed out at the Paris Summit for failing to impose the “carbon tax” which is indeed the true motive of this whole climate change scare movement. A carbon tax would increase costs and stunt the emerging economies’ industrial efforts and their populations’ use of modern conveniences from air conditioning to electric or gas cooking, make transport more expensive.
Already Filipinos are already
paying higher power prices over the highest power cost in Asia due to
impositions of the Renewable Energy (RE) Act that allows solar, wind and other
REs to charge even more.
The emissions of 7 billion people of earth that can all fit into the State of Texas cannot surpass the impact of the other real factors such as the Solar Cycle, water vapour, natural carbon emissions, the tilt of the Earth, etc. The Solar Cycle and the Earth’s climate will change in many major ways over the centuries and millennia as it has always done when the once lush Sahara became desert tens of thousands of years ago, as Greenland was once green but now is white with ice and snow, or the land bridges to the Philippines were submerged after the last Ice Age.
Man must adapt to the powerful
changes brought about by universal shifts and industrial development provides
him tools to adapt faster and effectively.
FOREIGN POLICY –
WISE COUNSEL
FROM FILIPINO SCHOLAR PROF. LUCIO PITLO
III:
“Very well put! How to advance to a next strategy that leads to a negotiated outcome, with the best possible terms for our nation, is a timely topic given our political transition. Thanks! – ERICSON BACULINAO”
Moving Beyond the Jurisdiction Victory in the West Philippine Sea
Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, 09 December 2015
In doing so, the Philippines should bear in mind some key considerations: 1) it should not confuse the means with the ends; 2) it should observe the evolving regional environment and see how its actors, including fellow South China Sea claimants, respond to China's behavior and; 3) it should take a page from the experience and practice of its neighbors, like Vietnam, in dealing with China.
Means are not ends
The work does not end with the tribunal's decision as this body has no enforcement mechanism. Rather, the third party arbitration decision should be seen more as an enabler. A favorable judgment for the Philippines will undeniably confer on it higher ground in succeeding dialogues with China. A legal victory can help address the power assymetry in the negotiation table between the two states that has long been the source of anxiety and uneasiness on the part of smaller states when discussing territorial and maritime disputes with a bigger neighbor (and this unbalanced power relations is also driving smaller states to engage extra-regional powers as a mitigating measure). International reputational costs may encourage China to be more accommodating to legitimate Philippine demands, particularly in relation to access over marine resources, security assurance, and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight in the WPS. China may choose to behave like other hegemons counting on past precedents like the 1986 US vs Nicaragua International Court of Justice case to justify its recalcitrance – that big powers cannot be compelled into submission by the international legal system and they can get away with it. But doing so would run contrary to the peaceful rise mantra that it espouses. It will also run counter to China's aspirations of cultivating harmonious relations with its neighbors, invite interference of other parties and contribute to regional instability which does not in any way work towards Beijing's favor. Hence, with an appreciation of the aforementioned, whatever benefit the Philippines can obtain from the arbitration ruling should better be used as a leverage in negotiating with China.
No friends, just interests
The Philippine legal challenge against China had been likened to an epic battle between might vs right, Goliath vs David , the giant or major world power vs the underdog and even more interestingly between dark vs light, among others. But, in real life, international relations, its actors and their motivations are hardly black and white. Former French general, leader and statesman President Charles de Gaulle said that “France has no friends, only interests”. Similarly, British leader Lord Palmerston also remarked that “nations have no permanent friends or allies, only permanent interests” and the pursuit of such interests may be driving recent British policy to closely engage China even at the risk of jeopardizing its longstanding special trans-Atlantic ties with the US. How will the international community behave when a final favorable ruling is awarded to the Philippines? Will they apply pressure on China to encourage its compliance knowing the same may antagonize their burgeoning interdependent economic relations and further push China against the wall and give credence to hardliners in Beijing who view the international system as being manipulated to contain and prevent China's rise? Much expectation had been accorded to strong backing from the international community once a decision comes out despite little appreciation of emerging realities.
Every challenge – like the WPS disputes - can also be seen as an opportunity and the flurry of wheeling and dealing among littoral states in the region in recent years demonstrates attempts to compromise and trade concessions from one another. And in most of these actions, the Philippines is being left out. Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan (and recently Australia), did send observers to the Hague proceedings but their preoccupation is arguably more towards assessing the implications of the case towards their own claims and less of a show of support to the Philippine position. In fact, other littoral states are free riding at Manila's back, expressing various degrees of support, albeit token, to the case while still engaging with China and other disputants. As a result, they had exacted considerable concessions from the competition of great powers without getting entangled in their geopolitical and geoeconomic rivalry. The partial jurisdiction victory may convince adherents, as well as critics alike, that the Philippine administration is on the right track, but the road is still long and the destination still remains uncertain. For the time being, other interested parties to the case, including other claimant states, are obtaining insurance and not putting all their eggs in one basket.
Taking a page from Vietnam's book
If there is any claimant state that has the most axe to grind against China in the South China Sea (SCS), it can only be Vietnam – losing control of the Paracels and losing 64 soldiers in the skirmish over Johnson South Reef in the Spratlys in 1988. But Vietnam's position in dealing with China, especially over SCS, is not solely confrontational but rather includes a strong engagement element as well. Deep familiarity with the Chinese engendered by centuries of living under Chinese rule and shared political and economic systems made Vietnam very adept in dealing with China.
After the May 2014 oil rig incident where China and Vietnam traded accusations of ship ramming and which also precipitated a series of anti-Chinese demonstrations across Vietnam, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi visited Hanoi to mend frayed ties and in July of the following year Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited Washington, culminating a series of high level US-Vietnamese exchanges and visits that began in 2013. The Chinese oil rig was removed from Vietnam's EEZ and Vietnam gained a partial lifting of the US-imposed arms embargo against it, not to mention obtaining US support for its maritime security. During the oil rig standoff, the initiation of legal challenge against China was put on the table but whatever mutual concessions both sides traded, it was enough to prevent Vietnam from taking legal action.
The November 7, 2015 visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Hanoi was widely seen as a step to repair relations damaged by the oil rig row. President Xi Jinping was given a rare opportunity to address Congress. Both sides issued a Joint Statement saying that the visit was a success in terms of “contributing greatly to cementing the traditional friendship, deepening the Viet Nam-China comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership, and promoting peace, stability and development in the region and the world.” (Interestingly, the purported visit of US President Obama to Vietnam did not push through). However, while continuing its engagement with China, Vietnam, at the same time, has also invited Japan to participate in a humanitarian exercise and for a Japanese warship to call at strategic Cam Ranh Bay. In addition, at the sidelines of APEC 2015 held in Manila, Philippines and Vietnam, two vocal critics of China's assertive actions in SCS, elevated their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership. All these demonstrate Vietnam's effective nuanced approach in balancing its relations with great powers to advance its own comprehensive national interests – security, economic and political. These experience and practices can serve valuable lessons to the Philippine leadership as it continues to develop its China policy in the years to come, regardless of the outcome of the arbitration case.
Never too soon or too late to talk
It is neither too soon nor too late for the Philippines and China to find ways to resume high-level and meaningful engagements, as well as explore alternative ways of managing the disputes. All states would say that they have indisputable sovereignty or sovereign rights over territories or waters they claim which are contested and this is to be expected. But the fact that they are willing to discuss the issue, through bilateral dialogues or gradually through regional mechanisms, suggests a veiled acknowledgment of the existence of the dispute. Boundary negotiations require sustained political will and commitment and have long time horizons – Philippines and Indonesia recently settled their maritime boundary after 20 years of negotiations, China and Vietnam settled their maritime boundary in the Beibu (Tonkin) Gulf after 27 years and the Sino-Russian land and riverine (including islands in the river) boundary took 40 years of hard work from both sides. China made it clear that thewithdrawal of the case is not a precondition for such talks and that the Philippines is not being excluded from its recent trade, connectivity and financial initiatives such as the One Belt, One Road and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. That bilateral trade continues and even had some modest growth despite of the tensions demonstrating that doors remain open and that such openings can be further expanded. After a brief halt, Philippine agricultural exports to China resumed and the easing of restrictions on direct chartered flights from selected Chinese points of origin to various Philippine destinations boosted Philippine tourism.
Philippines should engage China not on the basis of fear or misperception but rather out of conviction and confidence, especially coming after the partial jurisdiction triumph, knowing that it is in China's best interests to showcase its good neighborhood policy by respecting and reassuring legitimate Philippine national security needs and maritime economic interests. China cannot be a respected world leader if it cannot be even acknowledged as a responsible neighbor in its immediate backyard. Engaging or talking with China does not mean that the Philippines is backing down or showing less nationalism in the same way as it cannot be said for the Vietnamese, Indonesians (and the rest of ASEAN states) and even for the Koreans, Japanese and Americans. The WPS disputes had been there since the 1940s and even early on by some accounts, and the end of such disputes is nowhere in sight. However, despite the persistence of the disputes and occasional outbursts, successions of leaderships among coastal states had shown a commitment to handle the disputes without infringing on the fundamentals of regional security and stability. As it continues to challenge longstanding US primacy in the region, much will be expected from China – the brand of leadership it wants to showcase and the kind of attitude it will display in handling disputes, especially with its immediate neighbors.
In sum, given the character and nature of the WPS dispute, it is less likely that an enduring solution will be anchored on a legal one where the possibility of a clear winner and a clear loser will be produced and where interests of other relevant parties may not be taken into full consideration. Rather, the solution may be more political and diplomatic, something that can be drawn from confidence-building and negotiations where attempts to balance interests and exchange concessions may make for a more durable peace.
Lucio Blanco Pitlo III is a Project Consultant to the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation Inc. He is also an Assistant Professorial Lecturer for International Studies at De La Salle University and Contributing Editor (Reviews) of the journal Asian Politics & Policy.
No comments:
Post a Comment