‘On the 80th anniversary of the St. James Agreement, the Filipinos (along with the Indonesians, Thais, Vietnamese, Myanmar people, Laotians, Malaysians, and even the Singaporeans, Bruneians, Cambodians) should be inspired to assert the status of Southeast Asia as a nuclear-weapons-free zone…’
ALIEN invasion? (1) BI arrests 50 aliens for misrepresenting in Mindanao (2021 May 05): 50 Chinese working for a steel company as laborers, office workers in Kamanga, Maasim, Saranggani Province. (2) BI arrests 36 Koreans, Chinese, Indonesians in illegal gaming ops in Double Dragon (2021 April 20): BI Commissioner Jaime Morente warned illegal aliens not to take advantage of the pandemic to commit illegal activities. (3) BI stops errant Chinese woman from leaving PH at NAIA (2021 April 04): BI Commissioner Jaime Morente identified the passenger as 35-year-old Qiu Meiying, who was intercepted last March 26 at the NAIA terminal 1 when she attempted to board her flight to Xiamen, China…The case stemmed from the charge of fraud and misrepresentation that were filed by BI prosecutors against the Chinese for allegedly falsifying their employment permits in order to apply for working visas in the country. (4) BI bars entry of 17 Chinese nationals (2021 February 21): Intercepted first at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 were 16 Chinese who came on board a Pan Pacific Airlines flight from Zhengzhou, China…Also intercepted on the same day at the NAIA Terminal 2 was a Chinese man who arrived via a Philippine Airlines flight from Bangkok, Thailand. (5) BI deported more than 3K Aliens in 2020 (2021 January 26): BI Commissioner Jaime Morente disclosed that Chinese deportees, who totaled 3,009, comprised the bulk of the 3,219 aliens who were sent out in 2020. (6) BI agents arrest fake Filipino (2021 January 23): BI Commissioner Jaime Morente, in a statement, announced the arrest of Li Xinlei, 51, inside the Pasay City Hall compound by members of the BI’s Intelligence Division…“Let this serve as a warning to aliens who will attempt to use the Philippines as their hideout. Despite the pandemic, we will not stop. Your days are numbered,” he warned. [https://immigration.gov.ph/news/press-release]
Back step 80 years. The undesirable aliens then were mostly fascist Japanese imperialists (plus a score of Bundists and Nazis in Manila, Italian Fascists and Spanish Falangistas in Manila) and the fake Filipinos were the collaborationists. Where was the alarm? Was the alarm sounded? In 1941, June 12 became Flag Day, in recognition of the importance of June 12 when independence was proclaimed, and the national flag and anthem formally presented to the Filipino people.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/featured/republic-day/about/] But that act would soon be overshadowed. In six months, Southeast Asia and the Pacific would become a theater in the Global Anti-Fascist War. The Philippines was about to share the misfortune of the 4,000 civilians who suffocated in a shelter due to the June 5, 1941 Japanese air raid on Chongqing, China.
Were Manuel L. Quezon’s countrymen in the Philippine Commonwealth indifferent to the bitter situation in Northeast Asia and Western Europe? “In the 22nd month of the war against Nazism, we meet here in this old Palace of St. James’s, itself not unscarred by the fire of the enemy, in order to proclaim the high purposes and resolves of the lawful constitutional governments of Europe whose countries have been overrun, and we meet here also to cheer the hopes of free men and free peoples throughout the world.” [https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/in-the-media/newsreel-video-archive/until-victory-is-won/]
“The ruins of Warsaw, of Rotterdam, of Belgrade are monuments which will long recall to future generations the outrage of unopposed air bombing applied with calculated scientific cruelty to helpless populations…Czechs, Poles, Dutchmen, Norwegians, Yugoslavs and Greeks, Frenchmen, Belgians, Luxemburgers make the great sacrifice for faith and country. A vile race of Quislings — to use a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries — is hired to fawn upon the conqueror, to collaborate in his designs and to enforce his rule upon their fellow countrymen while groveling low themselves.” [https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1941-1945-war-leader/until-victory-is-won-2/]
“We shall break up and derange every effort which Hitler makes to systematize and consolidate his subjugations…This then, my lords and gentlemen, is the message which we send forth today to all states and nations, bound or free, to all the men in all the lands who care for freedom’s cause…Out of depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind.” [Churchill, Speech to a Conference of Dominion High Commissioners and Allied Countries’ Ministers, 12 June 1941]
This determination of the first Inter-Allied Meeting at Saint James’s Palace in London on June 12, 1941 (coming as it did on the 43rd anniversary of the Kawit Proclamation of Independence) should still ring true in the 21st century for the Filipinos and their sibling-nations in the single ASEAN Community: “The Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the Government of Belgium, the Provisional Czechoslovak Government, the Governments of Greece, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Yugoslavia, and the Representatives of General de Gaulle, leader of Free Frenchmen…Are resolved…That there can be no settled peace and prosperity so long as free peoples are coerced by violence into submission to domination by Germany or her associates, or live under the threat of such coercion.” [https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/imtjames.asp]
On the 80th anniversary of the St. James Agreement, the Filipinos (along with the Indonesians, Thais, Vietnamese, Myanmar people, Laotians, Malaysians, and even the Singaporeans, Bruneians, Cambodians) should be inspired to assert the status of Southeast Asia as a nuclear-weapons-free zone and a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality.
In this crusade, the real Filipinos ought to reject “the men of Vichy, whose policy is that of utter subservience to the German enemy.” [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1941/jun/10/defence-of-crete#S5CV0372P0_19410610_HOC_357] “Without the collaborators, Japan would probably not have been able to rule the Philippines…Opportunists, those who sought to gain from the sufferings of their people.” [Edward Loring Forness. The History Of The Philippine Quest For Independence. A Thesis Submitted to the University of Wyoming. August, 1950]
Who else are afflicted with LMF and what is the treatment? “As a general rule, to be treasonous the extent of the aid and comfort given to the enemies must be to render assistance to them as enemies and not merely as individuals and, in addition, be directly in furtherance of the enemies’ hostile designs.” [G.R. No. L-856 April 18, 1949] “Treason. Any Filipino citizen who levies war against the Philippines or adheres to her enemies giving them aid or comfort within the Philippines or elsewhere, shall be punished by reclusion perpetua to death and shall pay a fine not to exceed 100,000 pesos.” [https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1993/12/13/republic-act-no-7659/]
For Independence Day of the pandemic year of 2021, Alexandra Trese is on their case.
