Our Uncle is back, and back with a vengeance!
By Uncle, I mean Uncle Sam, the good ol' reliable colonialist whom we dismissed six years ago because we were made to realize how overzealously protective and manipulative he was.
Back in 2016, we were awakened from our colonial mentality stupor by the father of our land in a rather boorish manner which was effective because the shock and awe were really felt.
And then we began not to hate Uncle Sam, but more of realizing how abused we were under his wings, so we agreed with Tatay Digong that we should be unshackled.
We tried the independent foreign policy tack, and perhaps for the first time in our history, Uncle Sam felt powerless, even though we felt his scheming never stopped through other covert ways.
But with Tatay now retired and Junior taking over, Uncle Sam has been itching to return and bearing gifts to enchant us once more to return to his fold.
The gifts? Invoking a clause in his adoption papers called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA wherein he will pour money into five of our military facilities to improve them.
Is that good for us? Well, maybe if you like Hershey's chocolates or M&M's. But beyond this sweet talk, we should know better.
We should be wary of this move because it can only endanger us in the long run, and put us at a disadvantage if and when the clash of the titans happens, especially if the venue will be the Pacific.
If we once again side with Uncle Sam and allow him once more to exclusively beef up our military capability, then we are sending bad vibes to our newfound superfriends in Beijing and Moscow.
If we cuddle up to Uncle Sam again, we will be giving up our strategic advantage in the South China Sea, and will probably be the first target for invasion rather than protection.
It does not help that Uncle Sam will be sending an emissary named Kamala to our shores to reinforce his reclamation of the Philippines project, as it is expected that she will publicly showcase our reunion as an international spectacle.
Beijing and Moscow will not be happy, and even our neighbors in the region will probably dread this development because we are putting them also in harm's way.
The onus is now on Junior to tread carefully and reign in Uncle Sam's lustful comeback. He has the mandate and the moral ascendancy to be accommodating but not relenting and welcoming but not acceding.
Yes, he has the superior bargaining position, especially if he correctly invokes and reminds Uncle Sam how he was deeply involved in the ouster and uprooting of his family in 1986.
Junior cannot allow Uncle Sam to diminish the liberation and its consequent gains we managed to obtain six years ago.
He should rightly put him in his proper place.
For the sake of our own interest.
And only our own.
Mark my word.
