‘As we see China’s emergence from its painful colonial past, we also need to let her know that in the process she cannot practice some form of neocolonialism on her neighbors.’
WHATEVER one may think of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his recent performance at the international forum at the Shangrila Hotel in Singapore is worth lauding.
Confronted by a general of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Marcos stood his ground and explained that the Philippine actions with regard to the West Philippine Sea were in keeping with the spirit and letter of the ASEAN Community. In addition, he explained that the developments in our region were no longer just localized with regard to implications, but had international ramifications as well.
For me, it was a refreshing change from the policies and directions of the immediate past administration. We were leaning back and just taking it no longer; we were standing up for our rights irrespective of who we had to stand up against.
“I don’t work for Washington; I don’t work for Beijing; I don’t work for Moscow; I work for Manila,” intoned the President of the Philippines, making clear where his loyalties lay.
It’s never easy, being president of the Philippines, not now, not in our recent past. During the Cold War, we had no choice but to stand with the United States as it navigated the frigid waters of East-West tensions that erupted in conflicts in the Korean Peninsula and in the Indochina region. And Taiwan — we cannot ignore Taiwan.
Being host to some of the biggest US bases in the region, the Philippines became a staging ground for the deployment of US forces, in the process being even more identified with US interests and positions.
Junking the Bases agreement with the US in the early 1990s gave us some breathing room to establish a more independent foreign policy. But the closure of the US bases at Subic and Clark also created a power vacuum that China slowly filled as it emerged from its cocoon and began taking its “proper” place on the regional and global stage.
And for China, its newly emerged economic and military power allowed it to take seriously all efforts to erase its painful colonial past by showing one and all that it is no longer to be contained by anyone.
Its presence in the South China Sea and its consistently increasing muscle flexing over and around Taiwan are but elements of this new foreign and military policy.
Which is why the Philippines has to stand its ground, not because it is playing to the music of Washington, whose interests confide with ours at the moment. But because it is not right that as China flexes its muscles it does so in a way that impinges on the rights of other independent nations, much less a small and relatively powerless nation like ours.
As we see China’s emergence from its painful colonial past, we also need to let her know that in the process she cannot practice some form of neocolonialism on her neighbors.
Congratulations, Mr. President, for standing our ground.
