Our country shall move on, and we are free to chart our own future, leaving those who pull us down and disrespect us.

The US Government is in shambles. President Donald Trump has been impeached a year before the next presidential elections. The year 2020 will be of intense politicking in the entire of America. What does it do to veer attention from its internal strife? It throws shade elsewhere — internationally, to be precise.

Democrat Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy cast the first stone against our beloved sovereign nation. By endorsing a provision in the 2020 US budget that would allow the blocking of entry of officials behind the detention of Sen. Leila de Lima, the US Congress effectively oversteps its jurisdiction by dipping its fingers in places it utterly has no business with. This budget bill that purportedly includes the said provision was signed by President Trump last 20 December. Expectedly, the mainstream media outfits, friendly with them Yanks, bannered this story, with one specific conglomerate posting screenshots of the specific provisions said to be included in bills, now signed into law.

Allegations of “fake news” have been made against US Senators Durbin and Leahy, as well as an unnamed media outfit we can safely assume to be “that” station with a franchise expiring in March 2020. Some media men have echoed that the subject provision banning Filipino officials was not included at all in the bill signed by President Trump, citing online research materials enough to make any legal scholar scratch his head in contemplation.

This obviously infuriated Sen. De Lima, who in another entry in her series of handwritten notes, narrated the legislative process in enacting a budget bill in the US. It is interesting to note, however, how can she be so sure of herself in her detention cell that is not supposed to have Internet access.

The Palace made the correct response by banning US Senators Durbin and Leahy, and reviewing visa restrictions on Americans traveling to the Philippines. Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo broke the news in perfect terms, enough for it to make it in US mainstream media. The relationship of the US and our country is storied, to say the least, them being our former colonizers, wise enough to teach us governance, law-making, public school system and basketball. We were patterned and perhaps envisioned to be a state of America, until it became unprofitable for them to maintain us. It is nearly impossible for us to erase our colonial past, but is certain that we can erase them in our future.

At present, there are over four million Filipinos in the US. We are its trading partners, and we hold Americans in high regard. President Rodrigo Duterte never fails to show his disgust of Americans, but acknowledges his Cabinet’s preference for them. Regardless, our country shall move on, and we are free to chart our own future, leaving those who pull us down and disrespect us.

What the general public fails to understand, assuming that the subject provision is indeed included in the US 2020 budget, is that this is an attack on our country’s sovereignty. Every Filipino, as citizens of this proud nation, is obligated to resist and repel such acts, and those who propagate and capitalize on these must be considered as persons liable for treason. Additional cases can be filed against Sen. De Lima, on top of her involvement in the drug trade, and the media conglomerate involved heavily in this to put the final nail in their coffin of disenfranchisement.